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Hydraulic Fracturing (Also Fracking, Fraccing, Frac'ing, Hydrofracturing or Hydrofracking) Is

Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation technique used to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock formations. It involves injecting water, chemicals and sand or other proppants under high pressure to fracture the rock and allow oil and gas to flow more freely. When the pressure is removed, the proppants hold the fractures open. Hydraulic fracturing began in 1947 and has since been used in over 2.5 million wells worldwide. While it enables access to more hydrocarbons, critics argue it poses risks to the environment from water and air pollution and induced seismic activity.

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107 views1 page

Hydraulic Fracturing (Also Fracking, Fraccing, Frac'ing, Hydrofracturing or Hydrofracking) Is

Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation technique used to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock formations. It involves injecting water, chemicals and sand or other proppants under high pressure to fracture the rock and allow oil and gas to flow more freely. When the pressure is removed, the proppants hold the fractures open. Hydraulic fracturing began in 1947 and has since been used in over 2.5 million wells worldwide. While it enables access to more hydrocarbons, critics argue it poses risks to the environment from water and air pollution and induced seismic activity.

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Hydraulic fracturing (also fracking, fraccing, frac'ing, hydrofracturing or hydrofracking) is

a well stimulationtechnique in which rock is fractured by a pressurized liquid. The process involves
the high-pressure injection of 'fracking fluid' (primarily water, containing sand or
other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the
deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When
the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either
sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open.[1]
Hydraulic fracturing began as an experiment in 1947, and the first commercially successful
application followed in 1950. As of 2012, 2.5 million "frac jobs" had been performed worldwide on oil
and gas wells; over one million of those within the U.S.[2][3] Such treatment is generally necessary to
achieve adequate flow rates in shale gas, tight gas, tight oil, and coal seam gas wells.[4] Some
hydraulic fractures can form naturally in certain veins or dikes.[5]
Hydraulic fracturing is highly controversial in many countries. Its proponents advocate the economic
benefits of more extensively accessible hydrocarbons,[6][7] as well as replacing coal with gas, which is
cleaner and emits less carbon dioxide (CO2).[8] Opponents argue that these are outweighed by the
potential environmental impacts, which include risks of ground and surface
water contamination, air and noise pollution, and the triggering of earthquakes, along with the
consequential hazards to public health and the environment.[9][10]
Methane leakage is also a problem directly associated with hydraulic fracturing, as a Environmental
Defense Fund (EDF) report in the US highlights, where the leakage rate in Pennsylvania during
extensive testing and analysis was found to be approximately 10%, or over five times the reported
figures.[11] This leakage rate is considered representative of the hydraulic fracturing industry in the US
generally. The EDF have recently announced a satellite mission to further locate and measure
methane emissions.[12]
Increases in seismic activity following hydraulic fracturing along dormant or previously
unknown faults are sometimes caused by the deep-injection disposal of hydraulic fracturing flowback
(a byproduct of hydraulically fractured wells),[13]and produced formation brine (a byproduct of both
fractured and nonfractured oil and gas wells).[14] For these reasons, hydraulic fracturing is under
international scrutiny, restricted in some countries, and banned altogether in others.[15][16][17]The
European Union is drafting regulations that would permit the controlled application of hydraulic
fracturing.[18

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