Horizontal Drilling – Hydraulic Fracturing – It’s Not New
While economic contribution and job creation seem to dominate headline space as well as political focus, some may feel that we compromise our future as we emotionally react to the pain of our present set of circumstances. Questions/concerns about our domestic energy production are not in short supply. They range from what technological processes are involved to how safe is this for our environment. Synergy Station believes that with a more in depth look at hydraulic fracturing we can find answers to questions, address concerns, and more clearly focus on our choices at hand.
So what the heck is frac’ing anyway? For more than half a century America’s energy producers have relied upon hydraulic fracturing as a way to enhance well performance, minimize drilling, and recover otherwise inaccessible resources in domestic oil and natural gas production. The first commercial “frac job” occurred in 1948. By 1988, this innovative technique had been utilized nearly a million times and it’s estimated that roughly 90% of domestic wells in operation today have been frac’d. America’s oil & gas producers continue to applied this proven technique in innovative ways to unconventional formations, such as “tight” gas sands, shale deposits and coalbeds.
According to the American Petroleum Institute hydraulic fracturing now accounts for 30% of our domestic oil and natural gas. This technique has facilitated the extraction of more than 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and seven billion barrels of oil. The National Petroleum Council projects that 60% to 80% of all wells drilled domestically over the next 10 year will require fracturing to remain viable
So hydraulic fracturing is not new – it is simply (via horizontal drilling) being applied in a new way. Despite widespread application and a longstanding record of safety – few are aware of the basic facts. In a series of upcoming blogs Synergy Station will reflect on the history of hydraulic fracturing, discuss the economic benefits, look at the overall safety record of the process, and discuss the current regulatory environment.
