The Pros And Cons Of Hydraulic Fracturing

Natural gas is a much needed and demanded resource both locally and internationally. Considerable controversy has risen concerning the methods used for extracting natural gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing. As with any oil and gas operations, there are environmental risks associated with natural gas production. Hydraulic fracturing is a mining or drilling technique used to break up rock underground to create easier access to resources. This process is common in oil drilling and natural gas production. The technique involves pumping fluids such as water, sand and other additive chemicals into wells drilled through the shale formation. Hydraulic fracturing works by creating fractures in the rock formation that stimulate the flow of natural gas. Wells are drilled vertically hundreds to thousands of feet below the land surface and include horizontal or directional sections extending thousands of feet. Fractures are created by pumping large quantities of fluids at high pressure …show more content…
Natural gas is mainly composed of methane and 3.6% to 7.9% of the methane from the shale gas production escapes to the atmosphere in venting and leaks over the lifetime of a well. The higher emissions from the shale gas occur at the time wells are hydraulically fractured as the methane escapes from flow-back return fluids. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with a global warming that is far greater than that of carbon dioxide. The footprint of the shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over twenty years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the twenty year horizon compared over a hundred years.(Howarth 2011) Releasing these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere also affects the process of global warming by increasing it. This in turn threatens the ozone