Hydraulic ‘Fracking’ is a process being used in the drilling and recovery programs for oil and natural gas, here in North America and in other parts of the world, in oil fields that are past peak.
This process employs hydraulic pressure and results in the creation of fractures in rock structures that are used to open access to natural gas and oil in these porous rock formations. The fracturing is done from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations to increase the rate and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas, especially in areas that are considered near depletion.
Hydraulic fractures may be natural or man-made and are extended by internal fluid pressure which opens the fracture and causes it to extend through the rock. Natural hydraulic fractures may be caused by volcanic dikes, sills and fracturing by ice as in frost weathering. Man-made fluid-driven fractures are formed at depth in a borehole and extend into targeted formations. The fracture width is typically maintained after the injection by introducing a proppant into the injected fluid. Proppant is a material, such as grains of sand, ceramic, or other particulates that prevent the fractures from closing when the injection is stopped.
The problems observed from Fracking include wide spread poisoning of water tables, aquifers, and wells...and as the Fracking forces oil and gas to be expelled, occasional explosive apparitions have occurred. More than would be considered rare...as the toxic effect spreads so do the problems related to Fracking.
This process is not new… being invented and first used in 1947…but it has been accelerated recently in many North American regions. But things are not always ‘normal’ when you use water and Fracking Chemicals to force oil and gas from their million year hold in the stone below. In just one incident of hundreds…a well blowout in Clearfield County, PA on June 3, 2010 sent more than 35,000 gallons of hydraulic fracturing fluids into the air and onto the surrounding landscape in a forested area. Campers were evacuated and the company, EOG Resources, and the well completion company C.C. Forbes have been ordered to cease all operations in the state of Pennsylvania pending investigation.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has called this a "serious incident".1
1. ^ Gas eruption fallout, The River Reporter, June 10–16, 2010
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