It was also during this period that the industry saw the emergence of George P. Mitchell founder of Mitchell Energy whose company took the pioneering step into the hydraulic fracturing of shales on a scale which had heretofore not been attempted. On the other side of the Atlantic, hydraulic fracturing had spread onshore. Since then the use of hydraulic fracturing at onshore wells has been routine since the early s.
First introduced by Sandia Laboratory , modern microseismic monitoring technology in hydraulic fracturing uses surface and near surface detectors. As the reservoir rock breaks during fracking, a popping noise is detected, recorded and projected back to determine its location. The result? A more effective application of hydraulic fracturing to the well.
It was in that the Barnett Shale was successfully mapped using microseismic imaging. The oil output was driven by , fracking wells producing 4. By December , US shale oil production stood at 8m barrels per day and continues to increase with the IEA suggested that production could reach a plateau of m barrels per day by the early s. Outside of the US numerous other countries are making tentative steps into fracking.
China, desperate to secure domestic sources of energy, is eager to tap into shale following the decline of its conventional resources and booming demand. Some states and localities, meanwhile, have proposed blanket bans on fracking. New York state, for instance, has had a moratorium since Here's a longer list of regulations in the United States. Fracking itself has rarely been linked to earthquakes though Ohio is investigating this.
But the disposal of all the wastewater used in fracking has been known to cause tremors. Once a well is fracked, there are thousands of gallons of wastewater left over. Companies often dispose of that chemical-laced water by pumping it into separate underground "injection wells.
If those rocks lie near a geologic fault, that could trigger a tremor. At least, that's the theory. One study by the U. Geologic Survey found that earthquakes were on the rise in areas where wastewater injection was increasing. A follow-up study found that wastewater injection likely caused a earthquake in Oklahoma. It's worth noting that not all injection wells are associated with earthquakes, and many of these events were minor tremors.
Still, there are plenty of questions about whether these earthquakes could get stronger as fracking expands. As of , the United States had billion barrels of oil and 2, trillion cubic feet of natural gas that was "technically recoverable. This is oil and gas that we currently have the technology to access. But that doesn't mean we'll actually extract all that oil and gas. A lot depends on economic conditions. If prices go higher, then it will become more profitable for companies to drill for more oil and gas.
But if prices fall, it becomes less profitable and they might just leave it in the ground. That's why many analysts focus on a different measure, known as "proved reserves" — the stuff we could recover given existing technology and economic conditions.
By that measure, there are 29 billion barrels of oil and To put that all into perspective, the United States consumed about 7 billion barrels of oil and 26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in So that means we have anywhere from a 13 years' supply of natural gas to an 84 years' supply.
It all depends. Lots of things. About 93 percent of the fuel we use for transportation comes from oil. And natural gas is currently used to provide about one-third of the nation's electricity. Here's a more precise breakdown:. Oil: The U. Roughly 87 percent is turned into fuel for cars, trucks, and airplanes. Some of the oil is refined into home heating fuel.
The rest is used for a wide array of industrial purposes to make chemicals, paints, plastics, greases, asphalt, and so forth. Natural gas: The United States consumed about 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in About 36 percent of that was used to generate electricity at power plants. Another 28 percent was used to heat homes and buildings.
And the rest was used for various industrial purposes generating electricity or heat to help produce everything from steel to paper to food. For the past few decades, the United States has been a major importer of oil and natural gas. But thanks to the fracking boom, the country is now in a position to sell some of its newfound abundance to other countries.
But that would require changing certain laws — and doing so is controversial. Natural gas: If companies want to ship natural gas to other countries, they need to get a permit from the Department of Energy to do so they get one automatically if the United States has a free trade agreement with that country. More and more companies are applying for export permits these days and building shipping terminals.
Opponents of these plans say that increased exports could lead to increases in the price of natural gas for Americans, hurting consumers and domestic manufacturers. See here for more detail.
Oil: Ever since the s, it has been illegal for companies to export crude oil abroad with a few exceptions. In the wake of the fracking boom, many oil companies want to revise these laws, claiming that these restrictions are depressing prices and hurting their business.
Opponents of exports argue, among other things, that this could raise gasoline prices for some drivers in the Midwest. Right now, the United States imports 40 percent of the oil that it consumes. That number is expected to shrink to about 32 percent in the decades ahead, thanks to increased production and the fact that we're driving more efficient vehicles.
But it still means plenty of imports :. Even if we could reduce our imports all the way to zero, however, the United States still wouldn't be totally independent of foreign countries. That's because oil prices are set on the global market. So instability in the Middle East or rapid growth in China would still drive up global oil prices — leading to price spikes here in the United States. Natural gas is a fossil fuel, and when we burn it for electricity, we produce carbon-dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.
But natural gas is much cleaner on this score than coal is, producing just half the carbon dioxide per unit of energy.
So when we replace coal with natural gas, we're contributing somewhat less to global warming. That's what's happening in the United States. The glut of cheap shale gas has persuaded many electric utilities to switch from coal to natural gas.
That was one reason why U. There's a catch, however: The whole process of fracking for and transporting natural gas can lead to emissions of methane, another potent greenhouse gas. No one's quite sure how big those methane leaks are — there's a lot of disagreement among researchers.
But those leaks could potentially undermine the climate benefits of natural gas, unless companies find ways to fix them. Here 's a rundown of potential fixes. In the long run, however, natural gas is still a source of greenhouse-gas emissions, and efforts to avoid drastic global warming will likely require the world to sharply curtail its use of gas in the next few decades. So natural gas, by itself, isn't a solution for global warming.
See here for more detail on this. A few countries have been using fracking for some time — particularly Canada. But shale fracking hasn't yet caught on anywhere the way it has in the United States. Plenty of countries abroad have their own shale gas and shale oil resources. That includes China, which appears to have nearly twice as much shale gas underground as the United States does:.
But fracking has been slow to spread overseas, for a variety of reasons. Some countries, like France and the Netherlands, have banned fracking for fear of water contamination. Others, like Austria, have such strict regulations that drilling is uneconomical. Even countries in favor of fracking have seen sluggish progress, in part because working with shale can be extremely difficult and complicated.
In Poland, there's still plenty of work that has to be done to understand the region's geology. And, in China, the spread of fracking has been hampered by a variety of factors — complex geology, a dearth of water supplies in key regions, and a burdensome layer of regulations that hamper innovation.
This card stack is very much a work in progress. It will continue to be updated as events unfold, new research gets published, and fresh questions emerge. So if you have additional questions or comments or quibbles or complaints, send a note to Brad Plumer: brad vox.
You can find the answer to most questions about production or consumption there. The International Energy Agency's report on "Golden Rules for a Golden Age of Gas" offers a comprehensive overview of fracking issues around the world, as well as a guide to questions about pollution and regulation. The American gas industry is less restricted than in Europe, with hydraulic fracturing being exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act.
This contrasts with France, where there is a moratorium on fracking while an assessment of the risks is carried out. But some countries have forged ahead: in Poland, for example, exploration licences have been issued to 20 firms, test wells have been drilled, and commercial production is likely to commence in In the United Kingdom, until the occurrence of two small earthquakes 3.
In fact, the process has been going on since the s, with wells fracked onshore and even more in the North Sea. Various experiments have been tried: the Lidsey oil well, for example, was fracked in September using as the fracturing agent microbial acid, otherwise known as Marmite, a yeast and vegetable extract. In theory, Marmite and molasses would be food for special bacteria, which would excrete acid to dissolve the carbonate rock.
Unfortunately, it also fed the indigenous bacteria to produce hydrogen sulphide gas. The well as also fractured with a typical sand frack before the Marmite treatment, and is still producing today. West Sussex, England, the fracking fluid in the tanks is pumped into the well using Marmite in the fracturing process.
Photo: Eric Vaughan. Source: Little Gem Although the global potential of shale gas is vast, it is uncertain how much can be produced.
And, although shale gas is cleaner to burn than conventional fossil fuels, its overall impact on global climate change is difficult to predict. Environmental concerns persist: in China, drilling for oil has begun in the earthquake prone Sichuan region; in South Africa, the government has lifted a moratorium to allow fracking in the Karoo region, raising fears of damage to its ecosystem.
Filter Collections. Drilling for shale gas, Washington County, Pennsylvania, in November Source: Mark Schmerling, www. The Advent of Fracking Col. Source: Graphic by Al Granberg. Here we review how OPEC began and rose to its current position. It took nearly a year for the cable-tool rig to reach a total depth of m. The Lineham No. Send us feedback Submit feedback. Mailing list Sign up. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
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