What is Fracking? Definition, Pros & Cons, and Meaning in Politics

Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, has changed the global energy landscape and made fossil fuels (oil and gas) a big business in the whole world, especially in the United States. However, mounting evidence shows that this technique poses serious threats to our health, environment, and climate change. As a result, it has elicited regulations, protests and a key controversial subject in politics.

What is Fracking? (Definition)

Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is a technique whereby a liquid at high pressure is injected into underground rock formations to create small fractures in them so as to extract oil or gas. Other names used to refer to this process include fracing, fraccing, hydrofracking, and hydrofracturing.

During the process, large quantities of a liquid composed of water, chemicals, and sand are injectd into the shale rock formations at pressures high enough to cause fracturing. This allows the once-unreachable gas and oil to flow to the surface, get collected and distributed to customers.

Brief History of Fracking

Geologists have known for years that substantial deposits of oil and natural gas are trapped in deep shale formations. These shale reservoirs were created tens of millions of years ago.

The idea for fracking dates back to 1862 and has been credited to Colonel Edward A. L. Roberts. It dawned on Roberts after observing the impact that artillery had on narrow, water-filled channels. He thought of ways the same effect would be produced within the well and shatter the surrounding rocks, setting the oil and gas free to flow.

 His idea was advanced with the use of water under pressure. When water pressurized was injected into a well using explosives, oil flows increased, in some cases up to 1,200. As a result, fracking was established as a way of increasing production potential of oil and gas wells.

In the 1940s, explosives were replaced with high-pressure blasts of liquids, and so “hydraulic fracturing” or fracking became the standard way of oil and gas extraction. However was not until the beginning of the 21st century, that the new technology helped spark the current boom in fracking.

The modern horizontal drilling techniques of hydraulic fracturing was equally a major breakthrough that helped advance the vertical drilling technique. Today, the trapped oil and natural gas in the shale reservoirs is being safely and efficiently produced, gathered and distributed to customers around the world, Thanks to this technique.

Fracking Equipment and Materials

Materials used in fracking process include the following:

• Fracking sand, which is used as fracking proppant
• Fracking water, which is the main component of the fracking fluids
• Steel pipes for well casing
• Cement for cementing wall casing
• Various kinds of fracking chemicals

Hydraulic fracturing requires an extensive amount of equipment, including

• Transportation trucks 
• Hydraulic fracking pumps & mixers
• Drill Rigs and Drill strings  (composed of the drill pipe, transition pipe, Drill collar and  Drill bits)
• Well heads to seal the pressure of a well.
• Storage tanks for water, sand, chemicals, and wastewater.

Fluid Used in Fracking

The main functions of the fracking fluid are to extend fractures, add lubrication, and to carry proppant into the formation. Typically, 90% of the fluid composition is water, 9.5% is sand ( a proppant) while chemical additives account for about 0.5%.

Fracking Chemicals

The EPA identified 1,084 different chemicals reported as used in fracking formulas between 2005 and 2013. Common ingredients include methanol, ethylene glycol, propargyl alcohol and 2-butoxyethanol. The exact additives used may vary depending on the rock type and other specifics of a given fracking site.

The Various chemicals are added to the fracking fluid are for different purposes.  For example, acids are used to dissolve minerals so that the fossil fuels can flow more easily. Biocides eliminate bacteria while gelling agents facilitate the carrying of proppants into fractures. Corrosion inhibitors prevent steel parts of the well structures from being damaged by fracking fluid.

Disturbingly, the potential environmental and human health impacts of the majority of chemicals used in fracking are simply unknown. Worse still, fracking companies do not and sometimes are not required by law to disclose all additives used in the fracking liquids.

Fracking Proppants

The most favored proppant in the fracking industry is sand. The high-purity quartz called “frac sand” is the most preferred because of its round shape, fairly uniform size, and crush resistance. A single well operation can utilize thousands of tons of frac sand.

Frac sand is mainly produced in the United States, the largest single producer in the whole world.  For example, 70 percent of 2014 domestic production was obtained from the Great Lakes Region, especially from Wisconsin and Minnesota States.

Fracking Process – How Does It Work?

The whole process of developing a well typically takes from 3 to 5 months. A few weeks to prepare the site 4 the 6 weeks to drill the well and then 1 to 3 months of completion activities, which includes 1 to 7 days of stimulation. But these 3 to 5 months investment can result in a well that will produce oil or natural gas for 20 to 40 years or more.

Shale reservoirs are usually one mile or more below the surface, well below any underground source of drinking water, which is typically no more than 300 to 1000 feet below the surface. Consequently, steel pipes, called casing, are cemented in place provide a multilayered burrier to protect fresh water aquifers. During the past 60 years, the oil and gas industry has conducted fracture stimulations in more than one million wells worldwide.

Drilling and Well Casing

The initial steps are the same as for any conventional well. A hole is drilled straight down using fresh water based fluids which cools the drill bit, carries the rock cuttings back to the surface and stabilizes the wall of the well bore. Once the whole extends below the deepest freshwater aquifer the drill pipe is removed and replaced with steel pipe called surface casing.

Next, cement is pumped down the casing. When it reaches the bottom it is pumped down and then back up between the casing and the borehole wall, creating an impermeable additional protective barrier between the well bore and any fresh water sources.

In some cases, depending on the geology of the area and the depth of the well, additional casing sections may be run, and like surface casing are then cemented in place to ensure no movement of fluids or gas between those layers and the groundwater sources.

What makes drilling for hydrocarbons in a shale formation unique is the necessity to drill horizontally. Vertical drilling continues to a depth called the kickoff point. This is where wellbore begins curving to become horizontal. One of the advantages of horizontal drilling is that it is possible to drill several wells from only one drilling pad minimizing the impact to the surface environment.

When the target in distance is reached, the drill pipe is removed and additional steel casing is inserted through the full length of the wellbore. Once again the casing is cemented in place. For some horizontal developments, new technology in the form of sliding sleeves and mechanical isolation devices replace cement in the creation of isolations along the wellbore.

Completions & Hydraulic Fracturing

Once the drilling is finished and the final casing has been installed, the drilling rig is removed and preparations are made for the next steps – well completion. The first step in completing a well is the creation of a connection between the final casing and the reservoir rock. This consists of lowering a specialized tool called a perforating gun, which is equipped with shaped explosive charges down to the rock layer containing oil or natural gas.

This perforating gun is then fired, which creates holes through the casing, cement and into the target rock. These perforating holes connect the reservoir and then wellbore. Since these preparations are only a few inches long and are performed more than a mile underground, the entire process is imperceptible on the surface.

The perforation gun is then removed in preparation for the next step – hydraulic fracturing. The process consists of pumping a mixture of mostly water and sand plus a few chemicals under controlled conditions into deep underground reservoir formations.

The chemicals are generally for lubrication, to keep bacteria from forming and help carry the sand. These chemicals typically range and concentrations from 0.1 to 0.5% by volume and help to improve the performance of the simulation.

This Stimulation fluid is sent to trucks that pump the fluid into the wellbore and out through the preparations that we noted earlier. This process creates fractures in the oil and gas reservoir rocks. The sand in the frac fluid remains in these fractures in the rocks and keeps them open when the pump pressure is relieved. This allows the previously trapped oil or natural gas to flow to the wellbore more easily.

This initial stimulation segment is then isolated with a specially-designed plug and the perforating guns are used to perforate the next stage. This stage is then hydraulically fractured in the same manner.

This process is repeated along the entire horizontal section of the well, which can extend several miles. Once the stimulation is complete, the isolation plugs are drilled out and production begins. Initially water and then natural gas or oil flows into the horizontal casing and up the wellbore.

Waste Disposal & Clearing the Site

In the course of initial production of the well, approximately 15 to 50 percent of the fracturing fluid is recovered. This fluid is either recycled to be used on other fracturing operations or safely disposed of according to government regulations.

When all of the oil or natural gas that can be recovered economically from a reservoir has been produced, work begins to return the land to the way it was before the drilling operations commenced.

Wells will be filled with cement and pipes cut off 3 to 6 ft below ground level. All Surface equipment will be removed and all pads will be filled in with dirt or replanted. The land can then be used again by the landowner for other activities and there will be virtually no visual signs that a well was once there.

Impact of Fracking on the Economy

According to numerous studies, fracking in the United States has so far had a strong positive economic impact. For example, The Brookings Institution estimates that Shale Gas alone has contributed a net economic benefit of $48 billion yearly. The primary benefit of hydraulic fracturing is to offset imports of natural gas and oil, retaining what would have been used to pay foreign producers within the domestic economy.

Fracking has obviously created an appreciable jobs in the US. A Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group analysis in 2015 estimated that fracking created about 2.7 million U.S. jobs in the first decade of the shale revolution. Also, a 2013 study, commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, projected fracking will create about 3.5 million U.S. jobs by the year 2035.

On the flip side, research suggests that fracking have an adverse impact on agricultural productivity in the surrounding areas. According to one paper, the productivity of an irrigated crop decreases by up to 5.7% if a well is drilled within a radius of 11–20 km during the cultivation period. This effect becomes smaller and weaker as the distance between cultivation land and wells increases.

Why Is Fracking Bad

Although fracking has quickly boomed, the research on the safety of the environment and human health has not matched the pace. However, some researches have indicated that there are obvious or unknown undesirable effects on our environment and human health.

Environmental Impacts

There are doubts about the dangers of the fracking, with some findings raising serious red flags about the process. These include the impact it has on water for irrigation and domestic use, air pollution, noise pollution, environmental degradation and climate change.

Water Depletion

Fracking consumes a massive amount of water a single well may require between 1.5 million and 16 million gallons of water. The amount of water used in fracking has grown over time, worsening the impact process has on water supplies for other uses.

This should be a cause for concern given that the water used in the process is typically fresh water from underground and surface water resources. Additionally, water used for fracturing is too contaminated to return to its source without extensive treatment and hence is typically is disposed of deep underground.

Water Pollution

Fracking activities that could lead to water contamination, include the inevitable spills and leaks of fracking fluids, the injection of fluids into inadequately built wells. Surface spills of fracking fluids or poor wastewater management practices may contaminate both surface water and groundwater.

Air Pollution

Air pollution from oil and natural gas production such as fracking is a serious problem that poses threats to the health of nearby communities and climate change. Flaring (the controlled burning of the products), venting (the direct release of gas into the atmosphere), leakage and combustion of the products are significant sources of air pollution.

A broad range of health problems are associated with exposure to polluted air, including respiratory and neurological problems, cardiovascular damage, endocrine disruption, cancer and birth defects. Industry workers face much greater risks due to the likely on-site exposure to toxic chemicals and other substances. For example, inhaling silica, which is the main component of frac sand, can lead to lung disease and cancer.

Earthquakes

Fracking has been sometimes associated with induced seismicity and earthquakes. Because the explosive processes take place deep underground, their effect may be too small to be detected at the surface.  However, there are cases where tremors attributed to fluid injection into disposal wells have been large enough to felt by people. Some have even caused damage to property and injuries to humans.

Environmental Degradation

Just like any other oil and gas operations, fracking involves intense industrial activities. The construction of well pads, access roads and pipelines, will inevitably be accompanied by loud noise, lights, and heavy truck traffics.

The fracking activities may lead to fragmented forests, ruined rural landscapes, and destructed wildlife habitats. Attempts to rehabilitate the resulting environmental degradation may not revert the situation to its original status.

Climate Change

The potential environmental impacts of fracking include emission gases including greenhouse gases, especially through leakage or venting. Incidentally, natural gas is made up of mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas which can trap heat more than 80 times as much as carbon dioxide. Excessive greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are highly associated with global warming that has serious climate change effects.

Health Risks

Research has determined that fracking affects human health, including confirmation of chemical, physical, and psychosocial hazards, both short-term and long-term. Among the health issues is pregnancy and birth complications, birth defects, migraine headaches, chronic rhinosinusitis, severe fatigue, asthma exacerbations, lung disease, cancer and psychological stress.

Fracking in Public Debate and Politics

Fracking is highly a controversial subject in the general public as well as in politics. Its proponents advocate the economic benefits of the more extensively accessible hydrocarbons. They also prefer replacing coal with natural gas, which burns more cleanly, emitting less carbon dioxide (CO₂).

On the other hand, opponents of fracking argue that the benefits of fracking are outweighed by its adverse the environmental impacts. To justify their stand, they point at groundwater and surface water contamination, noise and air pollution, earthquakes and the associated hazards to public health and the environment.

Furthermore, fracking controversies played out in politics during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaigns. On the one hand, the then democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden called for a limited ban on fracking and ending its use on federally controlled lands. On the other hand, the then president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump championed himself as an oil and gas jobs protector, rejecting the idea of any kind of ban on fracking.

Fracking Laws and Regulations

Due to the existing and potential risks and dangers of fracking, the federal government and individual states have come up with various laws and regulations to control fracking in the U.S. For example, Vermont became the first state in the United States to ban fracking in 2012. While New, New York followed suit in December 2014 as the second state

In 2011, France became the first nation to ban fracking after public pressure. By contrast, the European Union currently has regulations that require full disclosure of all additives used in fracking fluid. Some other countries such as Scotland some state in Australia have placed a temporary moratorium on the practice of fracking.

Pros and Cons of Fracking

The main advantages of fracking include the following:

• It eliminates the necessity of importation of oil and gas from foreign countries.
• It creates several Jobs.
• It can highly contribute to and strengthen the economy of the country or region that practices it.

The main disadvantages of fracking include the following:

• It pollutes the environment in many ways, including air, noise and water pollution.
• It might lead to water supply depletion since it utilizes huge amounts of water.
• It poses health risks such as various diseases, complications and injuries.
• It degrades the environment; for example, by defragmenting forests and ruining natural landscapes and habitats.
• It may lead to induced seismicity and earthquakes which may cause panic, injuries in people, or destruction to property.
• It heightens climate change by contributing to global warming through the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.