To Frack or Not To Frack Depending on the source, horizontal fracturing can be made out to sound like the next best American revolution, making scarce resources of oil into an abundance through safe and harmless extraction or fracking can be made out to sound like the sole contributor of respiratory, sensory, and neurological damages to the people that drink the groundwater water close the fracking wells. The “for fracking” arguments combats their side with explanations of what they are doing is not harming the environment. The additives to what is being pumped into the ground to get the oil is said to be used to reduce friction as oil is pulled out which reduces the air emissions that are pumped out from the diesel …show more content…
Like many serious topics government policies and laws have to decide on, there is always two sides to the argument. Before an opinion can be shaped, the entire process of extracting nonrenewable energy from shale must be understood. First, there is a 2 directional, single pipeline. The vertical drilling line is drilled to reach the desirable depth in which natural gases can be extracted. Once drilled, a steel pipeline replaces the drilling pipeline and is externally covered by cement. The same process takes place for horizontal pipeline, that is responsible for collecting the natural gases. A perforating gun is placed down through the vertical section leading to the horizontal section where it blasts small explosives charges to break up the shale. Hydraulic fracturing takes place now. Water mixed with sand and chemical additives are sent through the underground pipe extending the cracks created by the perforating gun. The sand keeps the fractures open once the pressure used to extent them stops. A plug is sent down to compartmentalize sections of the horizontal pipe so the oil can be extracted at one time after all sections have been fractured and plugs have been drilled through. Now, natural gases are extracted along with the water and other materials used to fracture the rocks. Sources for fracking assure there are multiple layers around the pipelines, the pipes go so far deep they don 't affect groundwater,
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
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking” is a cost-efficient and innovative process to obtain natural gases from underground. Greengarbageblog.org describes
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
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.
Hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking is the process in which companies like BP or Exxon Mobile use to extract natural gas and oil from rocks that lie deep within the earth’s surface. They use a very large drill and inject millions of gallons of chemicals, which is incased with toxic chemicals at a high enough pressure to break through the rocks called shale to release these gasses (Food & Water Watch, 2012).
First the shaft is drilled several hundred meters into the earth. From that a horizontal hole is drilled into the gas bearing layer of rock. Next, the fracking fluid is pumped into the ground using high performance pumps. The mixture penetrates into the rock layer and produces tiny cracks. The sand prevents the cracks from closing again. The chemicals perform various tasks, among other things they compress water, kill off bacteria, or dissolve minerals. Next, the majority of the fracking fluid is pumped out again. Now the natural gas can be recovered. As soon as the gas source is exhausted, the drill hole is resealed. The fracking fluid is pumped back into deep underground layers and sealed in.
Secondary steps require a perforated gun producing high-magnitude electrical currents to be introduced down the wellbore (oil field terminology pertaining to a hole generated from oil/gas exploration), helping drive holes into the cement and ultimately enabling a channel for gas flow. The gun is then removed. Under high pressure, the drill pumps a solution of water, sand, and chemicals into the established site, allowing the gas (methane) to be released and stored.
Fracturing is functioned to create fractures in rock formation that increase the volume of oil or natural gas that can be extracted through flow stimulation (EPA, 2018). The fracking method however, should not be largely used because the process requires large quantities of pumping fluids at high pressure into the rock formation, includes fracturing fluids that contain harmful chemicals, demands injection of waste into underground for disposal, needs extraction of natural gas through long vertical pipes and gives no available public baseline data.
For those who don’t know, fracking is a process that gas and oil companies use in order to increase production for their wells. Similar to traditional drilling techniques, a vertical well is drilled beneath a well pad. Once the desired depth is reached, the drill is repositioned in order to drill horizontally. This horizontal bore varies in length but can extend to distances up to two miles long. At this point, a mixture of water, sand, and
It begins by drilling into the surface, and then steel cased by cementing, then placing small explosives are then shot into the rock, next pumping liquids hence why it is referred as hydraulic fracking, into the ground. This produces the crust of the earth to break and release fluid we so desperately need for our society. Although this method is very effective, the chemicals that pumped into the ground which includes, hydrochloric acid, ethylene glycol and isopropanol are toxic. In addition, to the harmful chemicals mentioned, millions gallons of water and sand are being utilized in this process which could have side effects into the earth after-done for so many times. On an average it usually one to five million gallons of water is pumped into the cavity (Gral and CPM 30). Although, we need the energy to sustain life, fracking damages the environment which makes it less livable place to habitat all for the cost of cheaper form of
Hydraulic fracking is a process in which metal pipes are first drilled vertically thousands of feet deep into the ground and then further drilled horizontally in order to maximize the drilling of several wells from one drilling pad. Meaning, there is more efficiency through horizontal drilling because shale which is the horizontal layer where natural gas is found, is found at certain rock layers rather than being abundant randomly. This would defeat the purpose of constantly drilling vertically and waste money and time, therefore, the technique of horizontal drilling is efficient to the extraction process. Furthermore, this method uses millions of gallons of water and chemicals which are injected down a pipe, thus causing the shale rock layer to break. As a result, due to a difference in pressure the natural
After the correct depth is reached, then a directional, or horizontal section is drilled to reach the oil or gas deposits. The fractures in the rock are formed from a process that consists of pumping a large amount of a fluid mixture into the rock formations at high pressures. The fluid is mostly made of water, a proppant (materials that keep the fractures open), and chemicals that help open the rock fractures further. Internal pressure pushes the fluid mixture back to the surface after the process is complete. The fluid that comes back to the surface is referred to as “flowback” or “produced water.” This waste fluid is usually “injected underground for disposal,” but in some cases it is treated with more chemicals and then discharged into water sources (“The Process of Hydraulic Fracturing”).
The gas that is being produced from the shale that is economically viable is mined (extracted) from the shale stone by drilling then followed by hydraulic fracturing. The directional drilling and horizontal drilling accommodate the hydraulic fracturing process. During hydraulic fracturing is the process whereby a liquid is being injected in a borehole at hire pressure to create cracks and fissures in the subterranean rocks. The liquid that is being injected comprises of water that is being mixed with chemicals and propellant’s like sand, ceramic beads or either by other incompressible material to keep open the cracks and fissures to allow the natural gas to flow to the surface. After some days when the fracturing process has been done the pressure
In SAGD shown in the Figure 1.1, pairs of horizontal parallel wells separated by a vertical distance of 4-6m are drilled for one kilometer of a horizontal distance. The upper of the two wells (injection well) is used to inject steam in the formation to lower the viscosity of the bitumen. The lower one (production well) is used to collect the produced oil. The well drilled into the formation removes earth for a well (casing) to be inserted to the well bore. The well bore is then cemented to increase the stability and isolate it from underground water to prevent contamination. A smaller pipe with a number of small slits is then inserted in the reservoir.
The in situ geomechanical stresses of the formation do not remain constant during the fracturing treatment or afterward. Induced fracture will cause the a volume change within the formation which leads to alteration of the stress and strain conditions within the rock mass. The alteration of stress conditions will have an effect on the initiation and propagation of subsequent stages of the multistage hydraulic fracture operation. This phenomenon is known as ‘stress shadowing’. This special condition happens when the minimum compressive stress in the formation is increased due to the fracturing of the rock. There are some consequences of increasing in the minimum compressive horizontal stress, such as rotation or