A Report on Hydraulic Fracturing
Salman Ahmed
August 18, 2013 1. Hydraulic fracturing is a process of well stimulation, and a completion technique. It is used to extract underground natural resources, such as oil, natural gas, and geothermal energy. Industrial hydraulic fracturing is used to enhance subsurface fracture systems. The well stimulation process is used in nine out of ten gas wells in the United States. Generally, millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemical mixtures are pumped underground to break apart the rock formations to release gas. This method is used to facilitate the maximal extraction of natural gas by allowing it to move more freely from rock pores to production wells. This movement causes the oil or gas to come to surface where it can be stored in wells (US EPA, 2012). 2. The process of hydraulic fracturing starts with finding natural gas in underground formations, such as sandstones, carbonates, shale and coal. To gain access to the natural gas, vertical, horizontal, or multi-level wells are drilled to the target formation. Hydraulic fracturing is a completion technique used to create an effective connection between a well and the natural gas formation. Before drilling a well, a drilling and completion plan must be developed and approved by state regulators. Geoscientists and environmental employees then work to collect information about the surface geology of the potential drill site (ConocoPhillips, 2011). A well pad made of cement and dirt is constructed at the surface, and a large hole is drilled to a shallow depth. At the top of the well, a large-diameter steel pipe is set to keep the surface from collapsing. Once drilling is complete to a shallow depth, the drill is removed, and a steel casing is inserted. The inner space of the steel pipe is the wellbore, and cement is added between the wellbore and outer steel casing. The drill is replaced in the wellbore; in order to allow the horizontal sections of the well to be drilled, a motor is placed at the end of the drilling assembly near the kick-off point. The drilling resumes until the length of the horizontal section is drilled completely. The drill is removed, and another steel casing is inserted through the entire length of the well. Cement is again pumped through the wellbore to reinforce the horizontal section (ConocoPhillips, 2011). Perforations are then created in the horizontal casing to allow natural gas to enter the production casing. A fluid consisting of water, sand, and chemicals is injected through the perforations to stimulate the recovery of the natural gas to the casing. The fluid forcefully penetrates the shale and creates fractures in the rock. As the sand mixture fractures the rock, hydraulic fracturing creates a pathway for gas to reach the casing. To move to a deeper part of the well, previous perforations are plugged, and new perforations are injected and subsequently plugged. Finally, the plugs are drilled to allow the gas and fluids to flow into the wellbore and then surface with pressure. The natural gas and fluid mixture is separated at the surface, and the fracturing fluid is captured in steel tanks or lined pits (ConocoPhillips, 2011). 3. The three environmental issues raised by hydraulic fracturing include contamination of groundwater, its release of toxic gases into the air, and the creation of new roads which leads to increased traffic, increased risk of spills, and increased noise pollution. The creation of new roads is part of the broader category of hydraulic fracturing and its effect on surface and deep land. As discovery and stimulation activities expand into populated areas, the aquifers which are used to supply water for the fracturing process become increasingly prone to chemicals, methane, and other mixtures which have the capacity to contaminate them. Even if water is pumped from a well at the surface, contaminated water might flow from the land surface back into the well and compromise the quality of the drinking water and the aquifer. The disposal of used water at the production site increases the risk of contaminating the source of water in the event of spills or careless disposal (Tiemann & Vann, 2011, p. 4). The radioactivity of Marcellus shale-rock formation is a concern when natural gas is brought to surface. The air pollution from its radioactivity, as well as the toxic chemicals released as a byproduct of well production from propping agents, is a major concern for the overall quality of air. Also, the air pollution from diesel engines, compressor stations, and flaring adds to the overall noxious impact that the chemicals have on the quality of air (Citizens campaign for the environment, 2013) . With the need to dispose of chemical byproducts such as water-sand mixtures comes the increased need to use trucks to deliver them to dumping sites. This creates unnecessary noise pollution and carries with it the burden to create new roads. In addition to new roads impacting the surface land, the impact on the quality of soil leads to a decrease in the quality of vegetation. Hydraulic fracturing has an impact on the land to increase the risk of induced seismic activities near drilling sites to indirectly cause slight tremors and earthquakes which cause deeper depths of land to collapse (Pless, 2012). 4. Hydraulic fracturing is currently underway in the U.S. in states such as California, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wyoming. The fracturing in these states takes place around various basins. These basins include the Appalachian Basin, the Anadarko Basin, the San Juan Basin, and the Judith River in the Williston Basin. Major shale plays that exist in the US are major targets for hydraulic fracturing. The Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian Basin spans across eight states, making up a land area of approximately 54,000 miles. The Marcellus Shale is the largest reserve of shale gas in the U.S. Aside from the Marcellus Shale, the largest U.S. shale gas formations include the Barnett Shale in Texas, the Fayetville Shale in Arkansas, and the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana and Eastern Texas. The next largest U.S. shale gas formations exist in the Lewis Shale of Arizona and Colorado, the Antrim Shale in Michigan, and the New Albany Shale in Indiana and Kentucky. More shale oil formations include the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, the Devonian-Mississippian black shale, and the Niobrara formation in the Denver Basin of Wyoming and Colorado (Brady, 2012). Countries in Europe where hydraulic fracturing is currently underway include Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Some promising basins include the Vienna Basin in Austria, the Larzac Area of France, the Lower Saxony Basin of Germany, the Mako Trough in Hungary, the Baltic Sea Basin in Poland, the Alum Shale in Sweden, and the Yuzivska and Olesska gas fields in Ukraine (EIA, 2013). 5. Several legal issues involve whose responsibility it is to regulate hydraulic fracturing. Congress included provisions to protect groundwater in the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. The SDWA directs the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the underground injection of fluid mixtures to protect underground sources of drinking water. Section 1421 of Part C of the SDWA mandates the EPA to oversee and limit underground injections that could affect aquifers through underground injection control. Section 1422 allows the EPA to delegate the responsibility of UIC to the States through State permits, and if a state’s UIC program cannot be approved, the EPA must implement the UIC program in that state (Tiemann & Vann, 2011, pp. 6-8). Section 1421(d) was amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to define underground injection as subsurface emplacement of fluids by well injection, not by propping agents, as is done in hydraulic fracturing. This means that the UIC requirements of the SDWA do not apply to hydraulic fracturing done without diesel fuel as a propping agent (Tiemann & Vann, 2011, p. 20). However, the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2011 was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives as amendments to the SDWA. These amended the definition of the SDWA to include hydraulic fracturing, and for companies to provide a disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing to the EPA and for the EPA to make this disclosure available to the public (Tiemann & Vann, 2011, pp. 20-22). 6. Hydraulic fracturing laws and regulations in Canada are similar to the guidelines and rules that U.S. states follow for unconventional gas and drilling. British Columbia requires a mandatory public disclosure of chemicals used in proppant fluids. These chemical constituents are required to be disclosed on the website FracFocus.ca. The law provides some protection for trade secrets. The law requires spokespersons to be hired from companies that facilitate hydraulic fracturing to disclose the chemical information to the public. Safe operating practices, as outlined by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, must be followed by provinces that disclose the chemicals. Individual provinces are required to reinforce CAPP best practices, including additional monitoring of fracturing activities. Provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, New Brunswick further implement the CAPP best practices by implementing a stricter version of sand disposal and regulation of flow back fluid (Dittrick, 2012). 7. Hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas has made a lasting impact on U.S. energy needs. Hydraulic fracturing made up 49% of U.S. gas production in 2010. This rise in production from previous years resulted in decreased natural gas imports to the U.S. For example, the U.S. imported 32% less natural gas in 2012 than it had done in 2007. Imports have continued to decline in 2013, and as hydraulic fracturing increases, the U.S. will become an overall exporter of natural gas by 2020. Hydraulic fracturing in the U.S. is responsible for the decrease in oil imports. For example, the U.S. imported 65% of its oil in 2005, compared to 51% of its oil in 2011. The U.S. surpassed Russia as the world’s leading gas producer in November 2012, leading way for hydraulic fracturing to make the U.S. energy independent. As the U.S. is currently the third-largest oil producer behind Saudi Arabia and Russia, the U.S. will continue to expand with hydraulic fracturing to become the world’s top oil producer by 2020. The industrial gas price has also decreased to be less than one-third of natural gas prices in Europe, and one-fifth of natural gas prices in Japan. Power plants once fired with coal transitioned to being fired with gas because the industrial natural gas prices reached ten-year lows. The increase in hydraulic fracturing has also lead to an increase in jobs and business, as well as an increase in taxes on the price to move, store, and sell materials (EIA, 2013).

References
Brady, W. J. (2012, March). Hydraulic fracturing regulation. Retrieved from Hydraulic fracturing in the U.S.: http://www.law.du.edu/documents/faculty-highlights/Intersol-2012-HydroFracking.pdf
Citizens campaign for the environment. (2013, April 10). Hydro-fracking. Retrieved from http://www.citizenscampaign.org/campaigns/hydro-fracking.asp
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Dittrick, P. (2012, march 05). Focus: Unconventional oil and gas. Retrieved from Oil & Gas journal: http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/vol-110/issue-3/general-interest/canadian-provinces-follow.html
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Pless, J. (2012, June). Fracking guide. Retrieved from Natural gas development and hydraulic fracturing: A policymaker's guide: http://www.ncsl.org/documents/energy/frackingguide_060512.pdf page 4.
Tiemann, M., & Vann, A. (2011, April 15). Hydraulic fracturing and safe drinking water act issues. Retrieved from Congressional Research Service: http://www.arcticgas.gov/sites/default/files/documents/hydraulic-fracturing-and-safe-drinking-water-act-issues.pdf
US EPA. (2012, May 2012). Hydraulic fracturing background information. Retrieved from Environmental protection agency: http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/hydraulicfracturing/wells_hydrowhat.cfm