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‘Fracking’ is essential to our future
Thomas Molitor
Mora County Commissioner John Olivas wants a ban on oil and gas drilling in his county because he is concerned about the environmental impact of a drilling process used to extract tight shale gas named hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” as it is colloquially called.
Mora County is not alone in its concern about fracking. Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and San Miguel counties have halted or discouraged drilling and fracking with ordinances and moratoriums.
In a hydraulic fracturing job, “fracturing fluids” or “pumping fluids” consisting primarily of water and sand are injected under high pressure into the producing formation, creating fissures that allow resources to move freely from rock pores where it is trapped.
Typically, steel pipe known as surface casing is cemented into place at the uppermost portion of a well for the explicit purpose of protecting the groundwater.
In 2004, the EPA concluded, “the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into coal-bed methane wells pose little or no threat to underground drinking water.” However, last month the EPA announced for the first time that fracking may be to blame for groundwater pollution.
The EPA found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming. The EPA emphasized that the findings are specific to the Pavillion area. The agency said that fracking that occurred in Pavillion differed from fracking methods used elsewhere in regions with different geological characteristics.
A deceitful movie
So why are county commissioners in New Mexico jumping on the “ban wagon?” Maybe they have been watching too many Michael Moore-like documentaries on Netflix. An Oscar-nominated documentary, “Gasland,” says fracking contaminates our water supply with chemicals. In the movie, some homeowners set their tap water on fire.
The movie got a lot of attention (maybe Commissioner Olivas’?), but the movie’s arguments against fracking turn out to be deceitful.
Apparently, the dramatic tap water blaze had little to do with fracking. In many parts of America, there is enough methane in the ground to leak into people’s well water. The best fire scene in the movie was shot in Colorado, where the filmmaker is in the kitchen of a man who lights his faucet.
But Colorado investigators went to the man’s house, checked out his well and found that fracking had nothing to do with his water catching fire. His well-digger had drilled into a naturally occurring methane pocket. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), which is overseen by the Department of Natural Resources in Colorado, made this report investigating the claims made by the Gasland filmmakers.
Gasland features three Weld County landowners, Mike Markham, Renee McClure, and Aimee Ellsworth, whose water wells were allegedly contaminated by oil and gas development. The COGCC investigated complaints from all three landowners in 2008 and 2009. The COGCC concluded that Aimee Elllsworth’s well contained a mixture of biogenic and thermogenic methane that was in part attributable to oil and gas development, and Ms. Ellsworth and an operator reached a settlement in that case. However, using the same investigative techniques, the COGCC concluded that Mike Markham’s and Renee McClure’s wells contained bi0genic gas that was not related to oil and gas activity. Unfortunately, Gasland does not mention the McClure finding and dismisses the Markham finding out of hand.
So the Tower of Babel stretches high on this issue of whether fracking is the devil incarnate or just needs professional oversight to continue exploring a possible game-changer for America to break its dependance on unfriendly foreign fossil fuel sources.
Fracking in New Mexico
Fracking was used as far back as the 1860s to access oil and gas reserves. “In New Mexico, the majority of the 52,000 oil and gas wells in production have undergone fracturing,” according to the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
In early August of 2011, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association took a pre-emptive step and asked the state to require companies to disclose fluids 45 days after a well is complete. The information must be posted on a new public website called FracFocus or submitted in writing to the Oil Conservation Division.
“Fracking is the key to increased domestic production,” says Steve Henke, executive director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. “Without this tool, many of these unconventional shale formations become uneconomical to drill.”
The Big Picture
The world’s centers of gravity for hydrocarbons are spreading out from the Middle East. And the reason is new exploitation of “unconventional sources” such as shale. Within the oil and gas industry, this new output is called the “shale gale.”
It’s not overstating the case to say that unconventional hydrocarbons have shifted the world’s energy balance of power. The “shale gale” has spread the wealth around. Vast volumes of hydrocarbons are not just Middle Eastern plays anymore.
This shift has been enabled by new technology – revolutionary, really. Across the world, we’ve seen vast, stunning improvements in applied mathematics and computational abilities. Just on that basis along, today’s energy industry works with much-better exploration tools than in the past – better seismic and geochemistry.
Then there are new dramatically improved capabilities in directional drilling, with better drill bits and better fluids. After the holes are drilled, there’s fracking. The modern energy industry has more powerful pumps, more control of down-hole pressures and even better nanomaterials for holding the cracks open in the fractured shale and other tight rocks. What’s more, there are better post-completion treatments.
Here in the United States, the shale gale has eliminated the need for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, likely for several decades and perhaps longer. In addition, the shale gale has the potential to significantly reduce Russia’s influence over the European natural gas market. At the same time, the shale gale will dramatically diminish the “petro power” of other major OPEC players, such as Iran and Venezuela.
Fracking is important to New Mexico
Fracking plays a very important role in energy production nationally and in New Mexico.
A recent report from the American Petroleum Institute concluded that if Congress were to place additional federal regulations that govern the oil and gas industry practice of fracking, the number of new U.S. wells drilled would plummet 20.5 percent over a five-year period.
The study also concluded that elimination of the use of fracking would be catastrophic to the development of American natural gas and oil, with a 79 percent drop in well completions, resulting in a 45 percent reduction in natural gas production and a 17 percent reduction in oil production by 2014.
The oil and gas industry provides significant revenues to the State of New Mexico and local municipalities. For fiscal 2010, oil and gas revenue payments in the form of taxes, royalties and other revenues totaled nearly $2.2 billion. That represents a 27 percent contribution to the state’s general fund.
Now it’s up to the energy industry here in New Mexico to keep pressing its efforts to move ahead with new technology and improved internal controls.
While at the same time, it’s up to the policymakers of New Mexico to keep up on those latest technological and safety improvements in the industry in order to be better-informed about an industry that is of such vital importance to the revenue and energy development of New Mexico.
Natural gas is not risk-free, but no energy source is. Perfect, Commissioner Olivas, is not one of the choices.
Thomas Molitor is a regulatory analyst with the American Action Forum in Washington D.C. You can reach him at tgmolitor@comcast.net.
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Dr. J: “the aluminum foil crowd is convinced earthquakes are caused by petroleum operations”
Art McGarr, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist: “It may be, however, that more earthquakes are being induced in Oklahoma because of an increase in disposal well operations and, indeed, research is going on now to investigate this possibility.” source
Above are two ways of dealing with scientifically inconclusive statements. One could either ridicule, or one could state that something is unlikely, but is still under research. Which of these is more respectful and factual?
UPDATE: January 11, 2012
I spoke with an engineer who works in the Oil Conservation Division, one of eight divisions under the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. I asked him about fracking. His reply “to get at shale gas in New Mexico’s mostly sandstone geology fracking is the only alternative.” I asked him if New Mexico were to ban fracking that would mean New Mexico puts itself out of the shale gas business. He said, “yes.”
By the way, there are 61, 904 operating gas and oil wells in New Mexico. The number of new wells drilled each year is trending downwards – from 2005 through 2010 almost 40 percent. There are lots of reasons for this trend – political and economic – but all you have to do is look at the present price of nat gas and see that it is much cheaper than it was in 2005.
A few points not made by others:
1. If physically possible, oil and gas migrates. If oil and gas is in a formation from which it can be profitably produced, it is “trapped” by an impervious rock layer above. If the producer fractures the impervious rock layer, the oil or gas will migrate up, not to the well bore.
2. The zones that producers in NM seek to frack are deep. There are many other geologic layers between the ground water aquifers and the fracked formation. There are many other known, impervious layers in between.
3. Most of the areas where there are reports of fracking “problems” are areas where there are shallow, coal formations. Where there is coal there is guaranteed to be two chemical by-products of coal–methane gas and incredibly pure water. Hence, drilling a water well in those areas often results in a well owner finding methane in the water.
4. In NM and Texas the oil and gas industry is asking for regulations to require filing and public access to the chemical composition of fracking fluids so that there is clear traceability.
Mr. Molitor is correct. The wild card here will be environmentalists who argue that fracking causes “earthquakes” and “contamination” of ground water. Before they go to that level of analysis I suggest they look a the geoloy of the area as well as if there are other sources of the chemicals that they say contaminate ground water. Often times, if the environmental groups are willing and able to listen, they will find that contamination comes from land fill sources that had poor if any environmental controls. That is because these controls did not exist many decades ago. So our industry today gets wacked for the sins of our prior explorers. That makes so much sense! NOT.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Someone walking across the ground causes a “small” earthquake.
Having been associated with the petroleum industry since 1979, I can say with absolute certainty that the level of ignorance about the fracking process, drilling, casing, and cementing of oil and gas wells, in their present and historic forms is quite large.
The twin technological advances in natural gas development, hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling, which are used to develop “shale gas,” have resulted in major increase in usable domestic gas supplies (about 1/3), as well as price stability. The DOE is projecting that prices for natural gas will remain below $5/mcf thru 2022, rising to $6.50/mcf by 2035. (Recent prices for gas have been in the $3 – $4 range; prior to large amounts of shale gas coming into the market, prices had spiked up to $13 and were generally projected to be in the $7 – $8 range over the next few years and climbing thereafter.)
Ample, low-priced natural gas supplies will make it possible for our country to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, with only modest cost increases in overall energy bills. Producing a MWH of electricity by burning natural gas results in 50% of the CO2 emissions as coal, and with much less emissions of other harmful pollutants (NOX, SOX, mercury, fine particulates, etc.). The electric industry is slowly beginning to accept the concept of decommissioning coal plants and replacing them with natural gas, and with renewables like wind and solar backed-up by natural gas. Over the longer term, we will need completely GHG-free sources of energy to dominate our energy supply, but natural gas can take us pretty far during this transitional period, at modest costs. Combine a cleaner electricity supply with electric vehicles, and you get less dependence on middle-east oil and less climate change.
Thus, banning fracking is tantamount to saying “keep burning coal” and is likely to lead to worsening environmental problems. The best environmental outcome will come from encouraging development of shale and other “non-conventional” gas supplies, while regulating the industry closely to ensure that fresh-water aquifers are not contaminated and that other local environmental impacts are minimized. The economics we’re seeing suggest that shale gas industry can easily absorb some level of cost increases to ensure that their operations are environmentally sound.
One last note: While shale gas and fracking are important for the U.S. over the next few decades, so far it doesn’t look like New Mexico will benefit much on the production side of things. NM has conventional and CBM gas plays, but thus far, no significant shale gas plays have been worked here. Not only does the fact that they are now producing lots of natural gas in places like Pennsylvania which are closer to population centers hurt NM’s prospects, the price levels we are seeing (which are based on shale gas development) may be underneath the production costs for new gas wells in New Mexico. As a result, NM tax receipts for natural gas have stayed depressed; fortunately, our oil industry is doing well.
There is a correlation between earthquakes and fracking. Here is a recent Time article. The British energy company Cuadrilla Resources admits that sometimes small earthquakes result!
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/12/12/fracking-sizing-up-the-quakes-that-come-from-hydraulic-fracturing/
Ah wonderful, so now the aluminum foil crowd is convinced earthquakes are caused by petroleum operations, just like they think cell phone towers are “messing” with their brains. Now if only they can convince themselves that petroleum operations cause tsunamis they will have it all, since the already think it causes bad weather, sea level rise to flood Manhattan, tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, floods, droughts, cold weather and hot weather. I mean it’s just a no brainer to just shut down the entire industry worldwide and we will have Eden on our hands, right?
Here is a list of incidents where fracking is a suspected cause of water contamination – this is on the Natural Resources Defense Council website:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/incidents_where_hydraulic_frac.html
This is hardly “chicken-little-sky-is-falling” incidents!
and just in case anyone wants to dismiss the study because it is on a “Sky is falling” blog site, here it is in the WaPo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/does-fracking-for-natural-gas-cause-earthquakes/2012/01/06/gIQAw2SfhP_story.html
Here is a study of the recent earthquakes around and fracking well in Ohio. It is actually the waste water sights that the company is pumping the water back into the ground that is the cause.
Two years before the study they started drilling, coincidentally, the earth quakes started.
I am not a “Chicken sky is falling, Registered Democrat”, nor am I a “Rush/Haniety everyone is a communist who is not a Republican.” But as more studies are completed about Fracking, the worse it looks for the industry.
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/earthquakenatgas01082012/
Fracking has become the latest leaf for the chicken-little-sky-is-falling crowd…Nuclear energy and nuclear waste disposal are on the back burner for awhile….It’s a great new “cause” for the full-time wacko crowd in their constant romantic search for wholesomeness…
There is no evidence that fracking has contaminated a water supply claims to the contrary…No activity is risk-free however, and drillers know it so they go to great expense to reduce it. If anyone wants to avoid real, significant risk, don’t get out on the highway.
As for economic development in these northern counties, we don’t need no stinkin’ development. We just register Democrat and go to work for the city, the county, the state, the schools, electric co-op, etc…..Or be a retiree that doesn’t worry about jobs
The solution is easy enough to the question of fracking. Any chemist can tell you how to add tracer chemicals to the fracking fluids. If the oil companies are so positive that fracking isn’t going to end up in the aquafiers they should have no problem agreeing in advance to the penalties should it occur. If we can (and we do) put a price on every conceivable mishap that can occur to a human body for insurance and malpractice situations we surely can do so for pumping frac fluids into groundwater. If the oil companies were confident of their claims they should have no qualms about agreeing to a “pre-nup” regarding their drilling. Let ‘em drill. If their fluids get into the groundwater make sure the cost will be a poison pill to the rest of the industry. We know, of course, that those advocating the process dang sure aren’t going to agree to being held financially responsible for any damage.
In Australia fracking is being studied. That country is very concerned about health risks.
http://m.smh.com.au/environment/study-links-fracking-to-health-risks-20120109-1prvu.html
http://www.popsci.com.au/science/future-of-the-environment/fracking-caused-earthquakes-says-british-study
Australia 60 Minutes exposes the the fracking industry!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PELxZ3K2o0c
This is scary stuff!
Here is the fracking song for Mr. Molitar –
“My Water’s On Fire Tonight”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPQ1SyFyJFM
Fire water is good for you? Watch video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01EK76Sy4A
A by-product of fracking is water contamination. Here is a Duke University study on the subject:
http://www.propublica.org/article/scientific-study-links-flammable-drinking-water-to-fracking/single
Well said Mr. Molitor, and the ignorance, superstition, and stupidity of people like the Mora Co. commish, as well as others, is always amazing to me.
Without drinking water humans become extinct.
While the EPA was operating in 2004, George W Bush was living in the White House.
Good luck eating seafood out of the Gulf of Mexico post Deep Water Horizon.
You know who needs drinking water anyway, let’s risk it. Smog clogs are much prettier than wind farms and solar panels. ;p
So ‘fracking is essential’ to Mr. Molitar and the corporate lobbyists from Washington DC; I suspect he means the money the frackers pour into the Beltway K St. brothels.
Funny, those of us in the gas patch feel the same way about our water.
I agree with Mr. Molitor. Why would we, the American public, not trust an Oil Company to tell us the truth? We can all see the logic that groundwater contamination has no relationship to the pipe that the Oil Company puts in the ground near the ground water. Even though it is a coincidence, that in and of itself, is not relational proof. And, we all know that companies like BP are working hard to protect the environment and to protect US. I say, Let the oil companies do what they want! They are not out to get rich and make profits at the expense of the environment – NO! They are here to help all of US.