The Global Demand For Energy

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.

Natural gas is a fossil fuel that plays a critical role in the demand and supply of energy in the United States. It is considered to be a clean burning transition fuel. Compared to coal and oil, natural gas combustion does not generate as much pollution and is therefore considered an ideal partner for renewable energy resources. Natural gas is extracted from shale formations underground that require horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – “hydrofracking” or “fracking”. This drilling and extraction method is currently considered a global widespread issue due to the rapid increase in the amount of new gas wells that threatens the quality of water around the source (Entriken, Evans-White, Johnson & Hagenbuch, 2011).

With shale natural gas now on the horizon in the United States of America, many supporters of the horizontal hydraulic fracturing industry are looking at the economic benefits of fracking shale. The current horizontal drilling abilities provided “23.608 quadrillion Btu [of just shale natural gas alone] in 2011” (Hassett and Mathur 2014). This number in terms of energy production marked the “USA [as] the second largest natural gas producer” (Hassett and Mathur 2014) as of the year 2011. Since 2011, the production of natural gas in the United States has been raised even higher as more and more states lift their moratoriums on fracking and new natural gas hotspots are discovered.

These reserves are found within shale formations. Shale is a sedimentary rock that is very low in permeability and porousness making it difficult to tap the gas and oil held within the formations. Due to the combination of fracking and new drilling technology, the production of natural oil and gas has constantly increased every year since 2006. In the year 1990, America reached a height of natural gas and oil production, producing about 70.706 quadrillion BTU of energy but that number would begin to decrease steadily due to the scarcity of acquiring natural gas and oil. In 2006 the production of energy was 69.443 quadrillion BTU. Accordingly, in 2010 fracking became popular and the production level reached 74.812 quadrillion BTU of energy. By 2011, the production of energy increased to 78.091 quadrillion BTU. The domestic production of natural gas and oil had a large contribution towards this growth. With this increase in production, the United states became the second largest natural gas producer in 2011.The European Union which is the third highest producer of natural gas and oil produced only about a quarter of natural gas and oil compared to that produced in the United

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

The process of the collection of an underground fluid would not be possible without the use of hydraulic fracturing. In the Shale reserves, located about 5,000 feet underground, suffer an extremely low permeability rate. Permeability is the measure of how well a fluid flows through an absorbent material at the depth, and within such nonporous rock, the ability of fluids to travel to the well is greatly limited. Fracturing increases the area of the fluid that is exposed to porous materials and thus greatly increases production. The method of fracturing utilizes a few key components which allow for an economical extraction of resources.

Majority of the data available online is either too biased or not peer reviewed and hence misleading to the readers. Natural gas is a very valuable resource and can be combined with engineering innovations to vastly improve human life. For instance, natural gas can help enhance energy efficiency by making the methane and ethane conversion process more effectual and economic. Also, natural gas can be used to generate hybrid high-temperature fluids for cleaner sources of energy such as solar thermal as well as natural gas powered systems for effective cooling and heating applications.3 In this age of technology, it is extremely important to discover ways to augment the potential of natural gas while taking the environmental implications into consideration. Sustainable ways should be developed to generate cleaner and more efficient energy while still embracing the economics benefits of the industry. While considering economic benefits of the hydraulic fracturing industry, it is also of utmost importance to consider those who are residing in areas of current or future shale gas operations for detrimental effects to their health and

Fissures created by high pressure fracking fluid to increase gas flow to the well also create pathways for leakage and consequent contamination of groundwater (Yu et al. 2014). Boreholes drilled for well access must pass through shallower strata, which may contain groundwater aquifers, before reaching target natural gas reservoirs (Davies et al. 2014). Passing through shallow layers of strata introduces a potential source of contamination to groundwater resources (Davies et al. 2014). Leakage into groundwater wells can occur due to poor well completion practices, the corrosion of steel casing, and the deterioration of cement during production of shale gas (Davies et al. 2014). Therefore, shale gas well integrity is important in reducing contamination events.

One of the most highly debated topics in the gas industry is hydraulic fracking. News about it is on the radio, tv and all over the internet. The truth about hydraulic fracking can be hard to find but is imperative to know the truth. The U.S Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States has 2,119 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. They predict that 60% of this gas is “unconventional gas” that is stored in low permeability formations such as shale, coalbeds, and tight sands (Jackson, 2011).

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is a process that fractures rock formations in the earth’s surface in order to release hydrocarbons. When these hydrocarbons are released, they flow more freely through the rocks and up to the wellbore, were oil and gas are extracted to (Suchy, 2012). Not all rock formations require a hydraulic fracturing operation to be done because the fluids move freely through rocks that have been naturally fractured. Shale gas reservoirs on the other hand are not permeable and have very few natural fractures; therefore the trapped gas and oil must be extracted by fracking only.

In 1848, James Marshall discovered a single nugget of gold in the American River in California, setting off a massive migration west as hundreds sought to capitalize upon the Gold Rush. Today, a similar situation is playing out. In the late 2000s, new technology enabled workers to extract natural gas from previously inaccessible shale deposits through horizontal hydraulic fracturing. This “shale boom” has had companies racing to capitalize upon the potential of vast natural gas and promises of energy independence and cheap energy. Yet, as the miners during the Gold Rush found upon arriving to California, scientists today are finding that many of the initial claims are not as they seemed. Companies are recklessly continuing, prospecting for natural gas deposits. Hydraulic fracturing is a means of extracting natural gas from deep, previously inaccessible shale deposits. It involves injecting a fracking cocktail mixture of water, sand, and various other chemical fluids into the ground at very high pressures to literally fracture the ground, releasing natural gas that can then be collected. Natural gas is a finite fossil fuel, yet due to the recent fracking boom, many people in the United States have heralded it as the future of America’s energy, the way to energy security.

United States oil production surged between 2008 and 2015 and few states have benefited as

North America has never been one to boast of rich oil reserves, but we have an abundant amount of natural gases. Until recently these natural resources have been unobtainable and untapped. But thanks to technological advancements, we are now able to exploit these rich gas reserves. Hydraulic fracturing has revolutionized the production of energy in the United States as well as other places in the world.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is the process of drilling wells thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface to extract natural gas deposits that are trapped in shale layers. Large amounts of a solution containing water, sand, and chemicals are shot down the well to fracture the shale layers, thus releasing the desired product. Natural gas is seen as a potential solution to the energy dilemma that faces the world today. However, the process of fracking and the advantages and disadvantages it poses to the environment are heavily debated. In order to gather a real idea of viability of fracking, all issues must be taken in to account and the subject must be looked at from multiple perspectives.

The process of hydraulic fracturing has made it easier to reach gas and oil reserves that used to be impossible to access, this has led to a dramatic expansion of energy production and an increase in the activity level of the economy (Hassett and Mathur). The use of hydraulic fracturing and directional horizontal drilling are being used together to reach oil and gas that was previously unreachable with old drilling methods (Romich and Schumacher). In Ohio, there have been at least 80,000 natural gas and oil wells that have used fracking at varying depths (“Hydraulic Fracturing”). There are areas in Eastern Ohio that contain deposits of dry gas (farthest east) and wet gases and