Drilling Process Of Natural Gas

Throughout the whole drilling process, many chemicals, and wastes release to the air. Among these chemicals, the process emits a huge amount of methane which is a very big contributor to global warming. The possibility of water contamination in fracking areas is also very immense because of the high tendency of wastes to seep back in to water supply. Rachel Richardson, a co-author of the paper from Environment America, told ThinkProgress, “For the past decade, fracking has been a nightmare for our drinking water, our open spaces, and our climate”. Researches have also revealed, as a result of the application of huge pressure in to the rocks, fracking triggers earthquake. As per MSNBC report “new study links Oklahoma earthquakes to fracking”

The drive to satisfy the nation's insatiable appetite for energy has driven over 31 states to adopt a process of natural gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing. "Used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells," fracking entails pumping "millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals"¦to break apart the rock and release the gas" (What is hydraulic fracking, 2013, Pro Publica). The chemicals are necessary to transform the water "into a frictionless mass that works its way deep into the earth, prying open tiny cracks that can extend thousands of feet. The particles of sand or silicon wedge inside those cracks, holding the earth open just enough to allow the gas to slip by" (What is hydraulic fracking, 2013, Pro Publica). Cash-strapped states have embraced fracking with a vengeance: it often brings jobs to rural areas with extremely high levels of unemployment.

The nation is shifting towards electricity generated by natural gas- over the past ten years 81 percent of new electricity capacity has been gas fired- and state governments are playing regulatory catch-up with the drilling technology’s rapid expansion to meet this burgeoning demand”. (http://www.gracelinks.org/191/natural-gas-fracking-introduction) However; to meet this demand, gas and oil companies have ignored some rather important harmful effects of hydraulic fracturing. These harmful effects include; water droughts, increased pollution, the spread of toxins, and possible negative influence on local economies. Water droughts because of the fracking process are caused by using up to approximately one-hundred times more water than previous drilling methods. This means that gradually less and less of the world where drilling is active or was active will have the ability to attain non chemical induced water. The article, “List of Pros and Cons of Fracking” published by Occupy Theory states that, “Anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of fracking waste water flows back to the original drilling surface” (http://occupytheory.org/list-of-pros-and-cons-of-fracking/) Hydraulic fracturing causes pollution in several different aspects. Oil and gas companies are not required to provide a list of chemicals used in the process which causes those in the areas where drilling is present to not be able to adapt correctly to these toxins. According to research, a few of the chemicals that have been found present in fracking include; benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. These three chemicals are known to the scientific community to cause harmful effects on the health of people. Also, the article, “Pros and Cons of Fracking: 5 Key Issues” explains that because of the dropping gas prices, drilling use will

Hydraulic fracturing has become one of the most common ways to extract natural gases, it is used in 9 out 10 gas wells in the United States (what is hydraulic fracturing?). It is also one of the most devastating ways to get it. The Fracking process uses millions of gallons of water sand and up to 600 different chemicals are pumped under ground hundreds of thousands of feet to

In the United States, hydraulic fracturing, dubbed “Fracking”, has become more and more popular in recent years. The goal of fracking is drilling into the ground and extracting the oil and natural gas that lays beneath the earth. However, this has drawn a lot of controversy due to its negative impacts on the environment. One of the main concerns is during drilling, waste water that is produced can potentially go into nearby sources of drinking water. It has also been observed that earthquakes have happened near areas where fracking occurs. The opposition argues that the process does not lead to contamination because the drilling happens well below freshwater sources while the

In the process of fracking, problems can occur and there can be a possibility of water contamination. During fracking underground water supplies can be exposed to shale gas and contaminate the water or there could be a cement failures and infiltration from soil or even water transportation incidents (Beaver 127; Penning et al. 1156). This can happen very easily and can cause the water to get contaminated. In one case, “EPA found evidence of groundwater contamination with benzene, xylenes, gasoline range organics, diesel range organics, and total volatile hydrocarbons in shallow wells that lie above 169 gas-producing wells that were hydro fractured.”(Penning et al. 1156). Most of these chemicals found in the water are harmful to the body, can

Oil and gas are found in little pockets in the shale by fracturing theses pockets it causes the hydrocarbons to be released, Hence the name fracking. To keep open and widen cracks, sand and chemical treated water is pumped into the shale. A

Before fracking starts a fluid is made to pump underground and recover the natural gas. The fracking fluid mixture is made up of lots of water, sand and chemicals, which cracks the rock layer and helps retrieve the natural gas. Once they have all the gas the fluid

Gasland is a documentary film by Josh Fox. It all began when a natural gas company wishing to buy his land for use of drilling approached him on him, in Milanville, Pennsylvania. He was told that his home was sitting on a natural gas field called the Marcellus Shale. The company claimed the Marcellus Shale was “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” (Gasland). All of that led Josh to want to find out more about what exactly natural gas drilling meant for everyone around the country. This led him to the 2005 Energy Bill, which was pushed through by Dick Cheney, exempted the oil and natural gas industry from the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, and many other environmental laws. The information is interesting because Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, the father of natural gas drilling. All of this information led Josh to the western America to see first hand the affects natural gas drilling that has been active in that area for at least a decade. Natural gas is extracted through a process called hydraulic fracturing, which drills a well and then pumps a mixture of water and fracking fluid. This fracking fluid contains over 595 different chemicals that have been uncovered with no help from the hydraulic fracturing industry. These dangerous chemicals can lead to many health problems experienced by many residents whose house fall around the same area as many fracking sites. One of the people he talked to was Lisa Braken, who grew up in the area of Divide Creek

Fracking for natural gas helps the U.S. make more of its own energy by getting to natural gas that can supply the U.S.for a long period of time and helping the U.S.to rely less on gas from other countries. According to “Is Fracking a Good Idea?”, there is enough natural gas in the United States to provide natural gas to the country for over 100 years. The amount of gas the U.S. can produce went way up because of the technology they use, such as directional drilling. Directional drilling helps the United States make more of it own energy because it drills in different directions from the same hole so that more gas could be come out of the original hole that they drilled. The U.S. needs to make more of its own energy so

In my opinion, I believe that hydraulic drilling can very beneficial as this will create many jobs for the American people, stop the purchasing of foreign gas , boost the American economy. As well as the gas being natural which will benefit the environment it will be cheaper for the American people. Hydraulic drilling can be very dangerous for the following reasons. because These oil companies are using harmful chemicals and not telling the general public what these chemicals are., It has been proven that it leads to health issues because of the pollution and contaminated water., and It causes environmental problems such as earthquakes and pollution along with excessive use of

Unconventional oil and gas operations mix directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' to unleash fossil fuel and oil from underground rock. Studies have targeted on potential pollution from this method that will increase endocrine disrupting chemicals in surface and ground water. Now, researchers report high levels of EDC activity within the surface water close to a hydraulic fracturing wastewater disposal facility in West Virginia. A question has risen whether there is an increased risk of diseases for the populations living near these operations. A warning has been given by the scientists

Toxic chemicals floating in the air could put citizens in danger. When well casings leak, things like benzene, silica dust, and smog fill the air (Don’t Frack). Which are toxic chemicals, there are many more in the concoction the drillers use. Fracking is also known to produce airborne pollutants much like the other ones but much more like sulfur oxide and methane (Fracking good idea?). The higher the level of toxicity the higher chance of making innocent people ill. Fracking would wreak total havoc on air quality, just like it did in the mountainous areas of Wyoming that went from pure mountain air to air worse than downtown LA in just a few years (Don’t Frack). Air pollution is and increasing problem that fracking very much contributing

While vertical wells do yield gas, they are mainly used as a base to connect several horizontal wells, which is where the money lies in the industry. After drilling, about “2 million to 10 million gallons of water [is used] to extract the gas” (Marsa 3-4). However, high pressured water alone will not break away the shale rock, therefore sand is added to enable further fracturing. The controversial issue fueling the debate is the third substances added to the water which allow the natural gas to escape for collection. “A cocktail of friction-reducing lubricants [are used] to make the water slick enough to slide through the pipes swiftly” (Marsa 4). A geochemist by the name of Tracy Bank conducted a study at SUNY Buffalo which concluded that the lubricant contained an abundance of toxic metals, “including uranium, barium, chromium, zinc and arsenic” (Marsa 2). This is just a short list of the negative compounds used in fracking. It is likely that the public will never get the full story as to the composition of the lubricants, as major fracking companies refuse to release that information, “claiming that doing so would reveal trade secrets” (Rahman 1). So where do these contaminants end up? After reaching the surface, the waste is emptied into tanks for storage. However, sometimes ponds are also used to hold the pollutants, therefore releasing the harmful toxins into runoffs. Once the gas has

Another problem that we know exists with hydraulic fracturing is the contamination of the water, the ground, and the air around the sites (Goldman pg. 2). It has been shown that “…residents living near the hydraulic fracturing sites are increasingly worried that the drilling process might be contaminating their well water, polluting streams, and releasing toxic gases into the air (Hobson).” Water sources, as well as the soil, are often polluted from flowback fluid and from production brine (Hydro-Fracking pg.4). Flowback fluid is “the contaminated fluid that returns to the surface during the drilling process, and is estimated to be between 9% - 35% of the fluids injected during