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Text by Linus Theorell
Paulina Petrat
Text by Linus Theorell
On Thursday, 13 March 2014, Paulina Petrat, a student from the Ecotechnology program at the Mid Sweden University, presented about Hydraulic Fracturing, commonly known as fracking, which is the extraction of natural gas or oil from shale or tight rock layers deep under the ground surface. During the process a fluid, consisting of water, sand and different chemicals, is injected with high pressure through a well deep into the earth which cracks the sedimentary rock and enables the recovery of unconventional resources.
Fracking itself is not a new technology, starting to be utilized already in 1947, but it was not until 2003 that the technology started to be used in big scale, when George W. Bush backed a provision to exempt fracking from EPA drinking water regulation, which made it easier to build and drive fracking plants. Today 90 % of all wells used in the USA are fracking wells, which is a number of approximately 500 000 active gas wells. And there are plans to build a lot more wells in the USA and also all around the world, mainly in China and Russia.
Overall fracking is a highly controversial topic that causes several political debates. Even though it is a cheap energy source that allows countries to be more independent from other countries regarding energy, it has also many cons, especially regarding environmental impacts, like lack in quality of wastewater treatment, pollution of drinking water, air and sediment and the enormous water use; between 12 000 and 20 000 m3 per drilling.
The development in numbers of wells built in Barnett Shale, USA, from 1997 to 2009.