In what has been touted as a breakthrough, the USA claims to be energy independent again, with access to huge reserves of oil and gas trapped in shale formations all across the continent. USA is now experiencing the effects of the SHALE REVOLUTION, a development that has cut costs of energy consumption across the country, reversed its position from the largest consumer of fossil fuels and gas to one of the principal producers of oil and gas that has strengthened its economy considerably. The fracking technique is a game changer in the oil and gas extraction process, altering geographies, economies, consumption and the world as we know it, possibly forever.
This is an interesting video about how fracking became America’s money-making pit.
WHAT THE FRACK?
With the fracking technique to extract oil and natural gas, you would be paying much less for the energy you are consuming but the trade-off is a huge environmental risk with potentially devastating environmental effects. Owners of land atop shale deposits are sitting on a virtual gold mine, with bills cut down by as much as 20% while sharing up to 25% of revenue with fracking companies if they own the mineral rights to the land.
The fracking industry has made it possible for the United States to lower costs of energy consumption and become energy independent once again but at a huge cost to the environment – contamination of groundwater, releasing huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere, pollution of fracking sites and destruction of the geography of the site.
WHAT IS FRACKING AND HOW FAR BACK DOES IT GO?
Hydraulic fracking or fracking as it is commonly known is the process of fracturing rock to extract natural oil and gas for energy consumption. It is a method to tap oil and gas trapped in shale reservoirs that are otherwise impenetrable and inaccessible.
You can check this video out to understand the technique of fracking.
WHAT IS SHALE & WHY IS IT SO MUCH IN DEMAND?
Shale is the most common fine-grained sedimentary rock found worldwide in a variety of colours like red, brown, grey, black and green. The shale rock that is of most interest to the fracking industry is black shale. This rock is made up of layers of silt, clay and organic material and is quite fragile when compared to other forms of rock and can easily be fractured when subjected to high pressure.
Black shale contains organic matter trapped with the mud from which shale was formed. Millions of years of heat and pressure on the organic particles deposited in the shale layers caused the matter to break down thus transforming into natural gas and oil. The oil and gas however often remain trapped in the tiny pore spaces within the shale rock and have to be extracted using conventional drilling techniques for conventional reservoirs or horizontal drilling and fracking techniques for unconventional reservoirs.
Conventional reservoirs are sandstone or sedimentary layers over shale layers that are porous and permit the flow of oil and gas from shale layers underneath thus enabling extraction through conventional wells drilled into the earth. Most shale layers however form what are known as unconventional reservoirs, where oil and gas are trapped in impermeable layers of shale rock and are inaccessible to traditional drilling wells. To draw the oil and gas out, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing or fracking is done to fracture the surrounding rock and permit the oil and gas to escape into the fissures. The oil and gas are then drawn out through the well created by horizontal drilling.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF HYDRAULIC FRACKING
Fracking is a controversial technique because of the number of natural resources required to accomplish it and the resultant impact on the air and water quality of fracking sites. Methane, a major greenhouse gas with an 84 times potential over Carbon dioxide over 20 years is a by-product of the fracking process. Research indicates that the Oil and Gas industry has a leak rate of about 1.2% of methane during the fracking process. While this is a huge improvement over the previous 2.3% owing to technological advances, critics still claim that the short-term warming effects of methane in the atmosphere are substantial. This has been contested by the International Energy Agency but the question remains about the impact the fracking industry has on air quality, greenhouse emissions and whether or not it drives climate change.
The fracking process has also been touted to cause respiratory issues, trigger asthma, and irritate the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Nitrogen oxides released during the fracking process deprive residents in fracking sites and nearby areas of clean air.
Fracking requires billions of gallons of water annually and massive amounts of sand to achieve the rock fracturing process, leading to bigger issues like illegal sand mining in many parts of the world which in itself has devastating effects on the environment and availability of fresh water to areas near fracking sites. In case water is not available in and around fracking sites, the water is transported from further away, disrupting available water levels in freshwater bodies like lakes and rivers across the country.
A third concern is the pollution of fracking sites once the process is complete. The water mixed with sand and chemicals cannot be subsequently treated for consumption purposes or other purposes as it becomes toxic and unusable. Only a very small quantity of water is reused for fracking at another site. The majority of water is injected into underground wells and sealed. This results in billions of gallons of water being sealed in underground wells – toxic, contaminated and unusable.
Spills and leakages from when the fracking fluid makes its way up to the surface lead to lethal effects on health! There have been 151 documented cases of water spills and leakages in 2015 alone, 13 of which reached surface water supplies. This also affects the soil and vegetation of surrounding areas, diminishing the soil’s potential to support life due to the high salinity of the fracking fluid.
This is an interesting video about whether or not the US should ban fracking.
References :
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/011915/what-are-effects-fracking-environment.asp
https://environmentamerica.org/sites/environment/files/exp/reports/costs_of_fracking.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_hydraulic_fracturing
https://www.wilderness.org/articles/article/truth-about-fracking-and-environment
