Fracking Good For The Environment

[elektra]

I was just thinking, wondering peoples opinion.

If we can use more oil from old wells, that is a good thing right? Even if we do Frack. Would it not cause more harm if we had to drill different wells.

After all, more wells mean more land destroyed, and after all, we have to do something with all our Old Wells, so Hydraulic Fracturing must be the answer.

any thoughts?

 

[Mr. H.]

Drilling operations do not "destroy land".

 

[elektra]

Fracking has been gone on forever, but somehow now, its an issue, its all politics as everyone can see.

 

[Mr. H.]

If this frac job didn't effect the water table, then none ever will...

A 29 kiloton nuclear device was detonated at the bottom of a 4,200 ft. well.

The result... a mere 350' of vertical fracture. Still thousands of feet below the fresh water zones.

Project Gasbuggy - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Agriculture, on the other hand, is responsible for polluting more groundwater, rivers, lakes, gulfs, seas, and oceans than any other industry.

Where's the lash back?

 

[waltky]

Or mebbe the New Madrid fault is gettin' ready to bust loose again...

US state went from two earthquakes a year to 585
Mon, Sep 21, 2015 - The central US state of Oklahoma has gone from registering two earthquakes a year to nearly two a day and scientists point to a controversial culprit: wastewater injection wells used in fracking.

Located in the middle of the country, far from any major fault lines, Oklahoma experienced 585 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or more last year. That is more than three times as many as the 180 which hit California last year. “It’s completely unprecedented,” US Geological Survey seismologist George Choy said. As of last month, Oklahoma has already experienced more than 600 earthquakes strong enough to rattle windows and rock cars. The biggest was a magnitude 4.5 earthquake that hit the small town of Crescent. Sandra Voskuhl, 76, grew up in the rural oil boomtown and said she has never felt the earth shake like it did on July 27.

First came a thunderous boom. Then the red earth shook hard, Voskuhl said. “You heard it coming,” she said. “Everything shook.” She recalled screaming as framed pictures toppled over in her home. Then, when things got quiet, she drove over to the town’s Frontier Historical Museum to help clean up antique dishes that had crashed to the ground and shattered. “We need the oil for our workers and our economy,” she said. “But these earthquakes are a little scary,” Voskuhl said.

Hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — is the process of shooting water mixed with sand and chemicals deep into the earth to crack rock formations and bring up oil and natural gas trapped inside. The process has unlocked massive amounts of oil and gas in Oklahoma and other US states over the past decade. However, along with the oil and gas comes plenty of that brackish water, which is disposed of by injecting it into separate wells that are dug just less than 2km deep. The unnatural addition of the water can change pressure along fault lines, causing slips that make the earth shake, Choy said.

There is debate among scientists over how large of a fault could be awakened and how hard that fault might shake. One camp believes Oklahoma is unlikely to see bigger than a magnitude 4.0 to 5.0 earthquake, which would be enough to break windows and knock things off shelves. Others believe a magnitude 7.0 earthquake could come about, which would be strong enough to topple buildings. “What’s at risk is that when you put water into the ground, it’s never going to come back out. You’re putting it in places it has never been before,” Choy said. “The bigger the volume, the greater the area will be affected. And we don’t know what the long-term effect will be,” he said.

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[Spinster]

In addition to everything being so politically correct, now we get the "green" brigade to add a little interest to life. How fun to be heckled by all this stuff. Oh, the good old days.

 

[flacaltenn]

Fracking has been gone on forever, but somehow now, its an issue, its all politics as everyone can see.

It's a self-leveling economic deal. When oil prices go high, you can AFFORD to frack the old wells. When it goes low. But it also open NEW reserves that couldn't be economically extracted before the better fracking methods developed..

One irony I can't over is that "geothermal power" is on the list of "clean and green renewables". It's a fricking fracking operation !!!!!. Greenies and Al the Gore don't even know it. Also don't know those thermal wells peeter out over time and are not technically "renewable" either. Go figure..

 

[Mr. H.]

I'm broke. That's my immediate apperendea. $38 oil isn't covering my expenses.

66 years and three generations in the business will very soon go bye-bye.

 

[waltky]

Oil prices startin' to go back up again...

Oil prices edge up as U.S. drilling declines
Sun Sep 20, 2015 - Oil prices edged up in early trading in Asia on Monday as U.S. drilling slowed and analysts estimated that $1.5 trillion worth of planned American production was uneconomical at prices of $50 per barrel or lower.

Crude oil prices have plunged almost 60 percent since June 2014, when soaring global production started to clash with slowing demand. This includes losses of more than a quarter since June this year as a sharp slowdown in China has sparked concerns over the health of the world economy. Analysts said the low prices were beginning to impact production as drillers slow down new projects, especially in cost-sensitive North America where drillers react fast to changing prices. U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a third week in a row last week, a sign that the latest crude market weakness was causing drillers to put on hold production plans, triggering a slight increase in prices on Monday.

Oil pumps are seen at a MAX oil station in Yangon

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were trading at $44.84 per barrel at 0108 GMT (9:08 p.m. EDT), up 16 cents from their last settlement. Globally traded Brent futures LCOc1 were at $47.60 per barrel, up 13 cents. "The current rig count is pointing to U.S. production declining sequentially between 2Q15 and 4Q15 by 255,000 barrels per day at the observed path of the U.S. horizontal and vertical rig count across the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken and Niobrara shale plays," Goldman Sachs said. "The implied year-on-year growth by 4Q15 of 120,000 barrels per day is lower than the prior week's estimate of 125,000 barrels per day," it added.

Analysts said low prices would have a bigger impact in the longer term as producers struggle to cut enough costs. "Operators are seeking an average cost reduction of 20-30 percent on projects, supply chain savings through squeezing the service sector will only achieve around 10-15 percent on average," energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said. "$1.5 trillion of uncommitted spend on new conventional projects and North American unconventional oil is uneconomic at $50 a barrel," it added.

Oil prices edge up as U.S. drilling declines

See also:

Oil up in Asia, but oversupply, weak demand weigh
Sep 21, 2015, : Oil prices rebounded in Asia on Monday but analysts said they remain weighed by a crude oversupply and fresh worries about the world economy after the Federal Reserve decided last week against raising interest rates.

US benchmark west Texas intermediate for October, which expires on Tuesday, rose 15 cents to $44.83 and Brent crude for November was up 10 cents at $47.57 a barrel in late-morning trade. Oil stockpiles held by Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, climbed to a record, Bloomberg News reported.

It said the country's commercial petroleum stockpiles advanced to 320 million barrels, the highest since at least 2002, citing data on Sunday on the website of the Riyadh-based Joint Organizations Data Initiative. Fresh worries have also emerged about the health of the global economy and its impact on oil demand after the Fed, the US central bank, held off raising benchmark interest rates last week.

Fed chief Janet Yellen said that bank policymakers cited the ongoing slowdown in China and recent turmoil on world markets as playing a role in the decision. "Indeed, the Fed's hesitancy only appears to have reinforced investors' worries about the global economy, rather than reassure them," Capital Economics said in a commentary.

Oil up in Asia, but oversupply, weak demand weigh - The Times of India