Fracking

Fracking is short for Hydraulic Fracturing, which is the latest and greatest way of getting Oil, the life blood of civilization. This is, more or less why the Greenies object. They invent the objections then demand that the frackers prove their innocence. They would claim that they are not industrial Saboteurs or Useful Idiots being manipulated by Cultural Marxists. We are at liberty to believe them. The BBC hopes we will but then the Beeb is part of the problem.

Of course Big Business is driven by greed; politicians are corruptible. Blair is the obvious example. But fracking is a growth industry.

Paul Homewood, a journalist has been over the ground and writes sensibly, mentioning Wytch Farm. See The climate scaremongers - Fact Checking Ed Miliband's Fracking Claims ex  The Conservative Woman

Other sources are:-
L
ibya and Syria heighten risk of an oil supply shock
Estonia becomes self-sufficient on shale gas

Poland's shale drive will transform Europe, if it does not drop the ball

Solar power to trump shale, helped by US military

Hydraulic Fracturing ex Wiki
QUOTE
Hydraulic fracturing is the fracturing of rock by a pressurized liquid. Some hydraulic fractures form naturally—certain veins or dikes are examples. Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a technique in which typically water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and the mixture is injected at high pressure into a wellbore to create small fractures (typically less than 1mm), along which fluids such as gas, petroleum, uranium-bearing solution,[1] and brine water may migrate to the well. Hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, then small grains of proppant (sand or aluminium oxide) hold these fractures open once the rock achieves equilibrium. The technique is very common in wells for shale gas, tight gas, tight oil, and coal seam gas[2][3] and hard rock wells. This well stimulation is only conducted once in the life of the well and greatly enhances fluid removal and well productivity. A different technique where only acid is injected is referred to as acidizing.

The first experimental use of hydraulic fracturing was in 1947, and the first commercially successful applications were in 1949. As of 2010, it was estimated that 60% of all new oil and gas wells worldwide were being hydraulically fractured.[4] As of 2012, 2.5 million hydraulic fracturing jobs have been performed on oil and gas wells worldwide, more than one million of them in the United States.[5] Uranium Energy Corporation is planning to use hydraulic fracturing to mine uranium. Fracking for uranium involves injecting oxygenated water (to increase solubility) to dissolve the uranium, then pumping the solution back up to the surface.[1]

Halliburton Frack Job in the Bakken Formation, North Dakota, United States
Proponents of hydraulic fracturing point to the economic benefits from the vast amounts of formerly inaccessible hydrocarbons the process can extract.[6] Opponents point to potential environmental impacts, including contamination of ground water, depletion of fresh water, risks to air quality, noise pollution, the migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, surface contamination from spills and flow-back, and the health effects of these.[7] For these reasons hydraulic fracturing has come under international scrutiny, with some countries suspending or banning it.[8][9] However, some of those countries, including most notably the United Kingdom,[10] have recently lifted their bans, choosing to focus on regulations instead of outright prohibition. The 2013 draft EU-Canada trade treaty includes language outlawing any "breach of legitimate expectations of investors" which may occur if revoking drilling licences of Canada-registered companies in the territory of the European Union after the treaty comes into force.[11]


File:HydroFrac2.svg
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The Wiki tells us some of the pros and lots of the cons. Read for yourself. Think for yourself. Decide for yourself.

 

From US Now World's Top Energy Producer

US Now World's Top Energy Producer
Thanks to fracking technology and horizontal drilling techniques, the United States has gone from a large-scale energy importer to the world's top producer — a development with far-reaching consequences.

America produced an average of about 12.1 million barrels of crude oil, natural gas liquids, and biofuels a day in 2013 — that’s 300,000 barrels a day more than Saudi Arabia and 1.6 million more than Russia, the two previous leaders.

U.S. production of crude oil alone rose by a record 991,000 barrels a day last year, according to the International Energy Agency. And oil imports declined by 16 percent, from $310 billion to $268 billion.

Fracking has enabled shale-gas production in North Dakota, Texas, and the formation that crosses parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York to account for 44 percent of total U.S. natural gas output.

"The hydrocarbon boom in the United States is driven by fracking," according to a report from the Hoover Institution headlined "Three Cheers for Fracking." In the 1970s, some experts predicted that America would run out of natural gas, and between the early 1990s and 2008, U.S. oil production fell steadily. World oil prices rose and American imports increased, especially from unstable, often unfriendly nations.

"Fracking has upended all of this," declared Gary D. Libecap, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an economics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Fracking and horizontal drilling enable drillers to extract hydrocarbon deposits that would otherwise be inaccessible or too expensive to extract.

As a consequence, fracking has:

  • Lowered overall energy prices
  • Increased U.S. exports of natural gas
  • Eliminated imports of liquid natural gas by the United States, saving $100 billion a year
  • Benefited most world economies by tempering oil and gas price increases
  • Lowered U.S. demand for oil from Venezuela, where rulers have been increasingly autocratic
  • Shown the way for new oil and gas production in Europe, reducing dependence on supplies from Russia
  • Expanded American manufacturing due to lower and more certain energy costs compared to other nations
  • Contributed to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as the country shifts from coal-fired energy plants to natural gas-fired facilities
  • Directly increased U.S. employment in oil and gas extraction by 28,000 jobs between 2007 and 2011 alone, and indirectly by 45,000 in new employment in support industries

    Fracking and natural gas production, Libecap concludes, have been "good for the economy, good for democracies worldwide, and good for the environment."

    It could be even better. According to the Institute for Policy Innovation, the federal government owns 28 percent of U.S. land, including 62 percent of Alaska and 47 percent of 11 Western states. Companies would be willing to drill there, but the Obama administration has delayed and denied drilling permits, and production on federal lands has fallen 23 percent since 2007.
  •  

    Sunak Attacks England By Halting Fracking   [ 28 October 2022 ]
    QUOTE
    Rishi Sunak has restored a ban on fracking after it was briefly lifted during Liz Truss's premiership, Downing Street confirmed today.

    The new Prime Minister has returned to a Tory manifesto commitment - made ahead of the 2019 general election - to a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of shale gas. Ms Truss had performed a U-turn on that pledge during her seven-week spell in No10. She had argued fracking would help boost Britain's energy security in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But the move was met be fierce opposition - including among Tory MPs - and saw a chaotic House of Commons vote on the issue last week.

    The shambolic scenes in Parliament proved to be a deciding factor in Ms Truss's downfall. Mr Sunak has now reversed Ms Truss's U-turn and re-committed to the 2019 promise.
    UNQUOTE
    Various ignoramii of the Hard Left will be pleased until the lights go out this winter or next. Fracking has been working well for years at Wytch Farm down in Dorset. Loud mouthed propagandists of the Lunatic Fringe are dangerous.