Drilling In The Petroleum Industry

Many seafood companies prices fluctuate because a whole number of reasons. Have you ever thought why though? They even have to take some foods completely off their menus. A lot of the time this is because of an oil spill that kills so much of the environment that a lot of the sea animals die or even become endangered. The BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 is a great example of this. It spilled 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 87 days. The area of the spill alone had over 8,000 species, which already had 39 endangered species and added 14 new species to the endangered list. Not only did we lose animals but “Eleven people died as a result of the accident and 17 others were injured”(BP Staff).

Senator Everett Dirksen once noted “The oilcan is mightier than the sword”. In today’s world, it is easy to see why oil can be considered the most important resource to hold. Without oil, many of the common day occurrences we take for granted would be impossible. Oil is used for almost everything; from the fuel used to drive our vehicles, to the plastics used in every facet of life, and providing the heat needed to live through the winter. In fact, the United States depends so much on oil that as a nation it uses over 20 million barrels a day. Importing oil increases the total costs because of the need to transport it from around the world. It is estimated

Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.

Did you know that oil companies are demolishing North Dakota’s environment by dumping drilling waste onto the land and in waterways? First, oil companies are taking truckloads full of drilling waste at a time and just dumping it to the side of the road illegally! This is mainly happening in the western corner of North Dakota but will most likely affect all of North Dakota. Eventually, this will affect all of North Dakota, by the drilling waste killing the animals or plants that other animals need to eat to survive. Then, oil companies also go and dump the drilling waste into the waterways. So, pretty soon all the western corner of North Dakota won’t have freshwater lakes and rivers. They have been doing this since 2014, so who knows what

Over the years vertical hydraulic fracturing has become outdated and new techniques are now used. Technology now allows mechanics to drill horizontally up to 10,000 feet. This new technique only takes a single drill and it can hold multiple piping lines and have them extending out in all directions at once. This allows more area of production to be covered in less surface area. With horizontal fracking, theoretically, the amount of area that can be covered is indefinite because more and more piping can be added if needed in the making of just one

Americans have been drilling for oil for more than half of their existence. Before the 1850’s oil was of little use and had no market for commerce as there was not one overwhelming use for it. Until around the 1850’s, when technology advanced, with it sparking search for one of the most sought after natural resources that countries would later go to war over, petroleum oil. Early inventions like the kerosene lamp provided a new stable home necessity to live by, increasing the demand for crude oil. This would be met in part by Colonel Edwin Drake, who drilled the first successful oil well in 1858. While Drake’s invention for extracting crude oil from the ground would bring about a new era for industrialization, his “black gold” would bring about an even larger effect, the environmental disasters caused by man. For over one hundred and fifty years of drilling for oil, both on shore and offshore, has led to some of the worst catastrophes to both nature and mankind. While many of these catastrophes have led to the deaths of hundreds of crew members, they have also led to long lasting effects on the environment, local and national economies, legislation, regulations, and human morale. These following effects can be seen in the most recent and most contaminated marine oil spill in history. To the media and public it’s known as the British Petroleum offshore drilling oil spill in 2010.

We also have state and federal officials over watching the procedures and practices. These officials also make sure the production wells are able to maintain integrity. “Maintaining well integrity and reducing surface spills and improper wastewater disposal are central to minimizing contamination from the hundreds of chemicals found in fracturing fluids and from naturally occurring contaminants such as salts, metals, and radioactivity found in oil and gas wastewaters” (Jackson, et al. 2014) If there is any problem with these wells, the operator knows that the emergency procedure is to stop the process and report it. These well operators understand the laws, reporting procedures, and well maintenance. “Any well drilled into the Earth creates a potential pathway for liquids and gases trapped underground to reach the surface.” (Jackson, et al. 2014) Every year they have to submit a report to the state or federal agencies to make sure the well is maintaining the integrity and report the production of the oil and

Imagine not being able to use the water that comes out of your kitchen faucet. At first you think it is cool that you can light your house water on fire but then become saddened when you realize no one will buy a house on contaminated land. Showers, swimming in pools, brushing your teeth have all become dangerous health risks. Families are getting sick more often and no one knows why. The citizens began to research what was going on in the area they lived in and soon learned that oil companies were using a process called hydraulic fracturing to extract oil out of the ground at nearby farms. This practice is a very controversial in the drilling community because it has longer lasting effects and it poses a greater risk to the people who surround the well site.

In today’s society the issues of producing energy is becoming more and more scare which, constantly posses the question, “How will energy be obtained in order to sustain future generations?” Hydraulic fracturing, informally known as fracking is believed to be an effective alternative to provide us with the energy we need to fuel tomorrow. Hydraulic fracking was first used at Texas Stanolind Oil and Gas Cooperations in 1947. However, it was not until 1949 that The Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Cooperation was given a licensee to use hydraulic fracturing. Since then a combination of two advanced methods have been introduced and incorporated (4). These methods are slick-water hydraulic fracturing and precision drilling of wells. Nevertheless,

Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is the process of drilling over a mile underground to extract natural gas from shale rock deep below Earth's surface. The vertical well then turns ninety degrees horizontally to trap natural gas. Fracking makes it possible to produce natural gas from shale that were once unreachable. Horizontal drilling and vertical drilling allows fracking fluids (A mix of water, sand, and various chemicals) to insert shale area. This creates new channels in the rock and natural gas is extracted. This drilling process can take up to a month. After the drilling process is over, the well is cased with cement to keep the groundwater protected. Fracking can create over 204,500 jobs within just four years and billions of dollars. Fracking is great economically, but it also has its downsides. Crime rate has increased 16.1 percent in violent crime and a 10.3 percent in property crime statewide in 2010-2011. The increase in crime has been driven, in part, by higher crime rates in the state’s western counties where the shale oil fracking is occurring. In 2009, fracking started in Ohio. From 2009 to 2010, fracking wells increased. Earthquakes in that same area increased 125 percent as well. In 2012 the earthquakes decreased because there was no more drilling in the area. One small farm in Bradford county was offered $100 per acre from an oil company to frack on their land. Little did they know that the fracking could cause damage, so they signed the lease. When they

In 2000, shale beds where the number one source of America’s constant need for gas. Most of that production increase has come about to the growing need of hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking”, which is a process used to release oil or gas from underground formations that are otherwise too hard to mine with other tools. Over the past few years, advances in fracking technology have made huge reserves of natural gas in America economically recoverable. According to the Energy Information Administration, shale gas plays, or fields, in the United States, most notably the Marcellus, in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York, and the Barnett, in Texas, are said to contain enough natural gas to give power to the country for a hundred and ten years. With the everlasting specter of energy independence, some have argued that such efforts to recover natural gas need to be expanded. Activists concerned with fracking’s potential environmental hazards view the new process as a serious threat to our environment. There are many different opinions on wether or not fracking is a safe way to gain our gasoline, and to meet the growing demands of gasoline around the world. The process of fracking creates cracks that come from wells into oil and gas formations by pumping highly pressurized fluids, ceramic beads, sand, and a mixture of chemicals, into the gas formation. As this fluid holds the underground fissures open, oil and gas fly up the well to the surface where they are

In believe we should not drill in Alaska to satisfy our fuel dependencies. As stated in the documentary “We can import minerals but we cannot import wilderness”, drilling begins a tradeoff; in exchange for minerals we get a damaged ecosystem. Some argue that Alaska has an immense supply of resources that would liberate us from foreign oil, however, there is no guarantee of vast quantities of minerals in Alaska, as the U.S. Department of Energy has stated that there is "considerable uncertainty regarding both the size and quality of the oil resources that exist”. Drilling damages the environment while possibly wielding disappointing results. Even if there is a reservoir of natural resources in Alaska it would not be immediately available

Hydraulic Fracturing (also commonly known as fracking) is a process used to extract natural gasses deep within the earth. This is done by drilling vertically into the ground until the desired depth; then drilling horizontally; and pumping millions of gallons of water, sand, and other chemicals into the drill at a high pressure to create fissures through which the gas can escape. Currently, hydraulic fracturing is extensively used in the United States in order to access fossil fuel energy deposits which were previously inaccessible. Although fossil fuels can now be accessed easily through this process, there are many health and environmental risks associated with fracking that may make it less than ideal. For instance, fracking can contaminate drinking water, increase air pollution, and leave workers and near-by residents open to many health risks. Although there have been laws and regulations passed to help minimize the risks involved with fracking, an in-depth analysis of the opinions of supporters of fracking and the research behind it will show how fracking needs to be further regulated in order to be safe and effective for everyone. While we do not have to completely stop the use of fracking, improving the fracking process or reforming the current laws and regulations can allow us to receive the economic benefits of fracking, while also being environmentally and health conscious.

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking has been around since the 1940’s, (Choma, et al, 2016), additionally it involves a large amount of pressurized water that has also been mixed with sand and other toxic chemicals to force shale gas out of deep rock formations (Deveau, 2014). The sand and supplementary chemicals are used to ensure that the fractures will remain accessible, to ensure that the oil and gas can flow back to the surface (Wheeler, 2015). There are two main types of hydraulic fracturing: vertical and horizontal (Choma, et al, 2016). Vertical fracking is the conventional method of drilling straight down into the earth’s crust, compared to horizontal fracking which allows the well to take place laterally (Choma, et al, 2016). The mix

“Rockefeller built an empire in a world without automobiles, finding profit by selling kerosene and lamp oil. By the turn of the century, the internal-combustion engine was generating demand for a new product: gasoline.”4 In comes the Lone Star State, to solve the worlds energy problem “Jan. 10, 1901, the modern American oil industry began on Spindletop Hill, south of Beaumont, Texas.”4 The big hill, located 4 miles south of Beaumont, Texas was formed millions of years ago with a giant underground dome made of salt. A man named Anthony Lucas from Austria, a former salt miner, was baffled at this big hill, which was actually only 12 feet high in elevation over the prairie lands. Lucas contacted some Pennsylvania oilmen for some help. The Pennsylvanian’s travel to Texas, surveyed a nice spot on the hill, and on October 27, 1900 the gusher was spudded. Spindletop had been drilled before, but never by a rotary drilling rig. Drilling is difficult at first. “There is little in the way of rock at the surface in that part of the world. Instead, oil wildcatters had to drill through several hundred feet of sand,”5 Due to the high sand content the well continually caved in, and one of the Pennsylvanians decided to try mud instead of water to help. This advancement changed the game for drilling, and is still used to drill wells today. The “Lucas Gusher” will erupt more than 150 feet into the air. It begins flowing at an astounding 100,000 barrels per day from a depth of 1,010