Fracking And The Drilling Community

In recent years, the subject of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking has been a constant subject of interest in the news media. The pros and cons of fracking are passionately debated. However, the public should become educated on the subject of fracking prior to choosing a side of the argument. In the scholarly article, “Super Fracking,” published in 2014, by Donald L. Trucotte, Eldridge M. Moores, and John B. Rundle, a detailed description of fracking is provided, followed by their analysis of current issues surrounding the controversy. According to Trucotte, Moores, and Rundle, fracking saves the consumer money. The wellhead cost to produce natural gas in January of 2000 was two dollars and sixty cents per one thousand cubic feet. At an alarming rate, the cost at the wellhead to produce natural gas had risen to eight dollars per one thousand cubic feet by January of 2006. Comfortingly, the wellhead cost dropped to two dollars and eighty-nine cents by the end of 2012. Impressively, gas production increase and price decrease over the time period are a result of fracking. In their article, Trucotte, Moores, and Rundle describe in great detail that hydraulic fracturing, most commonly referred to as fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth to fracture the layers of rock so that a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the oil or natural gas inside. This method of fracking has been used commercially for the last fifty years.

Fracking is a highly controversial practice that utilizes the injection of water, chemicals and abrasives to extract relatively inaccessible pockets of natural resources. Although fracking has the potential to benefit the domestic economy, the practice of hydraulic fracturing, if left unregulated and mismanaged poses significant risks to the environment, the ecosystem and safety.

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, is the process of removing oil and natural gas from in between layers of shale and other low-permeability rocks. This is done by drilling both a well and a horizontal tunnel. Sand and chemicals are shot through the tunnel with incredible pressure, which cracks the shale allowing the oil and natural gas to travel up the well (Jackson, 2014). Fracking has caused a breadth of controversy due to the economic benefits and the geological consequences.

“Fracking is the process of obtaining Natural Gas from below Earth’s surface by drilling 1000’s of feet into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.” Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well.” (Jackson). Hydraulic Fracturing got its name due to the fact of how the rock is fractured apart by the high pressure mixture of a number of chemicals, sand, and water. Drilling companies first began Fracking in the early 1940’s, and starting in the 1990’s companies began “safer drilling” due to the amount of concerns that had arisen because early drillers had to detonate small explosions that eventually ended up killing many people. Fracking has been used for nearly 60 years and the number of concerns about it are rising every day. Due to the new technological advancements in drilling Fracking has changed greatly over the years. Before, the drilling would go on for weeks on end in order to extract only a small amount of natural gas. Now, due to the invention of higher powered drills, the drills get double the amount then they used to be able to get in more then half the time. Over 95,000 square miles of shale deposits have been found around the Appalachian Basin but the only way to reach these deposits of shale is through fracking. “Fracking is a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock by drilling

Hydraulic fracturing also called fracking has been around for many years despite the recent events of controversy to continue fracturing or not. With the earth’s resources depleting rapidly every year and no sufficient replacement for energy humanity needs fracking. The process of fracking has been around for more than six decades. Fracking has been around since the 1940s and was created to increase the removal flow of oil and natural gas. In the words of chemical engineer Robert Rapier “Fracking involves pumping water, chemicals, and a proppant down an oil or gas well under high pressure to break open channels in the rock holding the oil or gas (Rapier).” A proppant can be different materials,

We need fossil fuels to power up our automobile, heating our homes, and lighting our streets throughout the night. Fracking is an innovation developed by the Halliburton corporation in the 1940s. It is an innovation that extract natural gases by injecting water mixed with sand and chemical additives. Hydraulic fracturing led the energy industry in the United States increased dramatically. How fracking works is drilling holes vertically or horizontally breaking the subsurface spewing chemical-laced water into the ground. This will widen the shale rock and force the gas to be released where we can collect it (What is Fracking?). Now, hydraulic fracturing is a worldwide controversial issue. It is in constant controversial debate about the water system and the chances of earthquake activity.

Fracking is a shorter form of Hydraulic Fracturing which is the extraction process of both natural gas and oil. The process involves drilling deep into the Earth’s surface. Fractures are then created by “pumping large quantities of fluids at high pressure down a welfare and into the target rock formation” (EPA, 2016). After making these openings for the gas or oil to come up (known as “flowback”) the materials can be stored. The reason the fracking process occurs is because “more usual methods of extraction may not be able to fully reach the deposits of shale gas and oil” (2015).

The dictionary states that fracking is a method used for getting oil and gas from underground rocks by injecting liquid into the rocks so that they can break apart (Merriam-Webster). Fracking can be a controversial topic in numerous people’s eyes due to the side effects that coincide with this procedure. Fracking has evolved over the years and made a comeback around 2010. Lately, the United States has heard tremendous news regarding this procedure and the drawbacks from fracking natural gases and oil. Fracking can be beneficial; sadly, the side effects greatly outweigh the benefits. The environmental risks, pollution, and the overall risk factors prove to not worth the risk of 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.

Hydraulic fracturing or most commonly known as fracking was first invented in 1997 and it is basically a technique and form of mining/drilling into the earth’s shale in search for shale gas and oil. Throughout time fracking has evolved and know a day’s hydraulic fracturing evolved from only drilling vertically to horizontally allowing companies to extract large amounts of oil and gas from places that could not be reached due to environmental concerns. Although fracking does have negative effects it also has positive ones. These include increasing the production of natural gas and increasing economic activities. In other words, fracking allows the state and the nation to access and have an alternative source

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is not an environmentally sound method of acquiring cleaner, cheaper energy. Fracking is a practice that is being used in order to collect natural gas from deep within the earth’s layers of shale rock. Fracking is the process in which water, sand, and chemicals are forced with immense pressure, approximately ten to fifteen thousand pounds per square inch, into the shale rock through a drilled out shaft. This pressure causes the natural gas to be released from the shale rock.

Fracking is new method being used to extract natural gases underneath bed rocks by pumping on average eight million liters of water, fracking water consists several thousand pounds of sand and about to two hundred thousand liters of chemicals according to source C. Since this is a new method of extracting natural gases, there's only been very little advance research that has been done among the dangers the environment, wildlife, and humans. This highly new expensive machinery produces greater amounts of fossil fuels that increases the percentages of global warming . Fracking gives a larger exposure to harmful chemicals in bed rocks that lead there way to our clean drinkable water. Though using this new method of extracting natural gases would

Many see hydraulic fracturing or fracking as a good source of oil pumping but others see major problems with this process. Hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ is the process of oil and gas pumping using a water, sand and some chemicals to drill horizontally against rocks. The water and sands pressure is raised to a point of breaking or fracturing the rocks which then releases the oil and gases (Lallanilla). There are many pros and cons to this process of fracking. Some more than others.

Fracking is a well-stimulation technique used most commonly in oil and gas production. Hydraulic fracking is usually performed on shale reserves, but conventional wells are also able to be fracked. Fracking is an extremely important technique; not only increasing production rates of wells but also adding approximately 20 trillion m3 of natural gas and 9 billion bbl of oil to the US reserves (Montgomery & Smith, 2010).

Criticism of hydraulic mine fracturing is rooted in the idea that the chemicals released from the process into the ground will be detrimental to the health of those residing near contaminated areas. “The sand and water used in the process are mixed with up to 600 different different types of chemicals per mine fracture. Mercury, lead, uranium, hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde and radium are all found within the fracking fluid.” (Dangers of Fracking). These toxic chemicals leak into the groundwater and serve as unsafe drinking water to surrounding cities. “There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water” (Dangers of Fracking). Most of the non biodegradable toxic fluid remains in the ground while only a small percentage is recovered. Volatile organic compounds are released into the air due to the remaining fluid resulting in a contamination of the air, ground level ozone and acid rain.