Quinn Ringgold
October 11, 2015
NSC115-17
Hydraulic Fracking Part 1
Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is a process of removing petroleum and natural gas from the earth, generally in shale deposits, using pressurized fluids deposited in well casings to crack open rock where deposits lay. Fracking was first experimented with in Kansas in 1947 (Hydraulic Fracturing in California). Conventional well drilling involves drilling a vertical well to withdraw deposits directly below the drilling position. Fracking, which is considered unconventional, drills a vertical well but then expands horizontally through hydraulic fracturing or horizontal drilling. The fracking process has become highly controversial in the past decade. People
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Mitchel Energy, a Texas based oil company and one of the first to practically implement the process of hydraulic fracturing, encountered problems when first using this process. Fractures created through hydraulic fracturing are deep enough under the earth’s surface, 6,000 to 10,000 feet, that pressure from the ground caused the passages to close before the materials had been extracted (Worstall). Mitchel Energy remedied this by mixing sand in with the fluid used to create the fractures. This holds the passages open, allowing full extraction of gas and oil. Today, there are a number of synthetic “proppants” available under the name “frac sand” that serve the same purpose. Included in these are ceramic beads and aluminum beads (King). “Over one million pounds of proppants can be used while fracturing a single well” …show more content…
No one perspective can come up with the right answer, nor is there one concrete true or false, yes or no, good or bad. Each benefit associated with fracking comes with a negative counterpart, the balances between the two requiring establishment.
Topics that are touched under the broad umbrella of issues covered by fracking include; environmental impact, economic impact, and employment. Political ties and regulatory bodies quickly come into question when the subject is broached. These are just a few of the issues commonly discussed in the ongoing debate over fracking and its place in our society.
Environmental impact is the first and foremost debate relating to fracking. The act of drilling into the earth to extract materials is a massive undertaking. The results of this are natural gas and petroleum products but include large amounts of displaced soil and release of other gases into the