Hydraulic Fracturing : A Technique Used For Extract Petroleum And Natural Gas From Deep Rock Formations Essay

Hydraulic fracturing is also known as “fracking” is a technique which involves drilling down, then horizontally as far as 10,000 feet below the surface to release natural gasses stored in the sedimentary rock known as Shale. The channel is then encased with concrete or occasionally steel to allow millions of gallons of water to be injected into the wellbore. Most water used in fracking comes from surface water sources such as rivers, lakes, or other accessible bodies of water nearby. Not only is there water being funneled into the wellbore, but also a mixture of sand and other chemicals. When the high-pressure mixture is injected underground it fractures the Shale around the wellbore and creates fissures. The fissures are then held open with

The extraction of natural gas requires a borehole which is dug down to the deep shale formation. After the hole is dug, a steel pipe is inserted into the borehole where it is encased with cement on the outer perimeter of the pipe. A perforation gun is lowered into the cement-encased piping. Using an explosive, the perforation gun perforates the casing and puts initial fractures into the shale at targeted locations. The shale is fractured further by inserting fracking fluids, which consists of 98% water and sand, plus 2% proprietary fluids. The fracking fluids are pushed down into the wellbore and pressurized to 3000 psi causing the initial fracture to spread in the shale, along the shale natural fracture lines. The sand in the fracking fluids keeps the created fractures open which allows the gas from the shale pores to flow into the casing and then to the surface, where it is collected.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been a hot topic in recent times due to its controversial ways. Many people argue that it is a way for the United States to become less dependent on foreign oil, while others argue that the environmental cons outweigh the pros of fracking. Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas from underground by drilling into the earth. This is done by injecting water, sand, and chemicals into a bedrock formation by a well (“Hydraulic Fracking”). By doing this, the process creates new fractures in the rock, as well as making previously made fractures bigger and easier to access (“Hydraulic Fracking”). Fracking is mostly done is areas that have low-permeability rocks like tight sandstone, shale, and some coal beds to increase the flow of oil and/or gas to a well (“Hydraulic Fracking”). The fracking process can take up to a month; the drilling team going more than a mile into the earth to extract the natural gases or oil. After the job is done, the well is cemented up (“What is Fracking”).

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,

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process used to excavate oil and gas trapped in shale rock.

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).

With the age of constant industrial and technological growth has come the necessity for not only cost effective and efficient methods for industry, but also the need for obtaining fuel for the machines that make the modern world possible. Oil has become as precious a commodity as gold, if not more so; its attainments constantly driving the world's largest businesses and governments across the world into action. Naturally, a "quick-fix" solution to this problem is constantly sought after by oil companies wishing to provide oil on a massive scale. One of these drilling methods is known as induced hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking).

Fracking is the nickname for Hydraulic fracturing and a type of drilling that has been used since 1950. Today, fracking is the United States most reliable source of natural gas and oils. Fracking consists of safely tapping shale rock and other tight-rock formations by drilling 1-2 kilometres or more below the surface before slowly turning horizontal and then continuing several thousand feet more. One fracking site can have a number of wells. Once the well is drilled, the drill is removed and the well hole is made solid.

During the process of fracking, water is first taken to the fracking site and is then mixed with chemicals and sand to make a fracking fluid. After the water mixture is created, “The fracking fluid is then pressure injected into the ground through a drilled pipeline” (“What Goes”). Once the fluid reaches the end of the well, “high pressure causes the nearby shale rock to crack, creating fissures where natural gas flows into the well” (“What Goes”). Due to the process of fracking, many effects occur, some positive and some negative.

‘Hydraulic fracturing/fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas’ (Oxford dictionaries, 2015).

Fracking is a mining approach in which a well in drilled thousands of feet deep into the Earth for the express purpose of gathering oil and gas from fuel reserves deep within its crust. Essentially, drill teams pierce through the planets sediment layers, water table and shale rock formations before placing a casing of cement as a sort of access valve to the raw fuel. This casing also acts as a channel for colossal amounts of water, sand and 50,000 gallons of fracking fluid used to extract the fuel from its location in the Earth. Fracking fluid, an unregulated chemical cocktail consisting of Naphthenic Acidethoxylate or Poly (Oxy-`1,2-Ethanediyl), Alpha-(4-Nonylphenyl)- Omega-Hydroxy-, Branched and other undisclosed chemicals, is maybe the most controversial element of the fracking process. When these fluids are dispensed into a well, a plethora of chemical reactions occur allowing oil and gas to be separated from shale in the earth and collected in its raw forms, before being transported to facilities for refining. In many instances, explosives such as TNT are set off before these solutions are poured as a means of rupturing and clearing bedrock.

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for short, is the process of extracting oil or gas from deep beneath the Earth’s surface by pushing water into shale rock to displace the oil or gas (Pritchard, 2013).

Hydraulic fracturing is a process of collecting natural gas by pressurizing shale beds. Fracking consists of two components: a drill and fracturing fluids [4]. Well shafts are drilled into a bed of shale less than two thousand feet deep to form a horizontal fracture because less force is required to make the rock strata buckle perpendicularly to the drill [2]. After the primary shaft has been drilled, cement is poured into the surrounding area to keep the fracturing fluids from backtracking up the shaft [2]. Once the drill is placed into the pay zone, where the reservoir of oil is located, fracturing fluids are forced into the surrounding