Fracking Generalized

Course Project Final Draft

Matthew Pederson

Rasmussen College

Hydraulic Fracking, Environment, Economy and the Future

In this paper, I intend to look at the ever contested and constantly evolving process of hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking or hydro fracking. Hydraulic fracturing is a method used to finish an oil/gas well, and a popular misconception is that it is a drilling process when in actuality the hydraulic fracturing only takes place after drilling has concluded. Most of the oil drilling in the United States has been done vertically this vertical process requires that many different holes are drilled so that the oil/gas can continue to be accessed as each well dries out. Hydraulic fracturing is done on what is known as a horizontal well, the well is drilled to a desired depth where the shale reserves that are to be accessed lay, then the well takes an 80 percent degree or greater turn and goes for what is known as a lateral extension for typically 2,000 to 6,000 feet, however some have been drilled in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota to be more than 10,000 feet long. The use of the horizontal wells and the fracking process allow the need for less wells to be on the surface to be able to access the same if not a greater amount of oil/gas (Faulkner, 2014).

Fracking as most people recognize it to be refers to the combined use of the horizontal drilling technique coupled with the use of actual hydraulic fracturing “in which a “slurry”… of fluids (water, sand, and chemicals— such as antifreeze, hydrochloric acid, and 2-BE ethylene glycol) is injected underground at very high pressure to crack open the dense shale rock, allowing gas or oil to flow to the surface, where it is captured for our use” (Prudhomme, Kindle locations 274-277). The use of the chemicals needed for fracking to occur has become a point of contention, people are rightly concerned about the chemicals seeping into water reservoirs and contaminating drinking water....