Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Fracking linked to Earthquakes in US
3 November 11
Fracking Linked To Earthquakes In The U.S. by Cousins
On the heels of yesterday’s report detailing Cuadrilla Resource’s admission that their fracking practices were responsible for small earthquakes in the U.K., new reports are surfacing that link fracking to earthquakes that occurred in January in Oklahoma. According to a new study by the Oklahoma Geological Survey [PDF], fracking is linked to 50 mini-earthquakes that occurred on January 18, 2011 in Oklahoma.
The NRDC describes the events as follows:
The occurrence of so-called “induced seismicity” – seismic activity caused by human actions – in conjunction with fluid injection or extraction operations is a well-documented phenomenon. However, induced earthquakes large enough to be felt at the surface have typically been associated with large scale injection or withdrawal of fluids, such as water injection wells, geothermal energy production, and oil and gas production. It was generally thought that the risk of inducing large earthquakes through hydraulic fracturing was very low, because of the comparatively small volumes of fluid injected and relatively short time-frame over which it occurs. As the controversy over hydraulic fracturing has heated up, however, researchers and the public have become increasingly interested in the potential for fracking to cause large earthquakes.
But this is hardly a new phenomenon. Studies show that fracking practices in the 1970s had caused similar seismic activity in Oklahoma, according to E&E News.
To date, none of the quakes have caused any deaths or any significant damages, but Grist echoed a great point from Joe Romm: “Would we tolerate this sort of impact from any other sort of industry? Would we tolerate it from a renewable energy industry? The answer there is no.”
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Fort Nelson,North-Eastern BC
This biggest frack (hydraulic fracturing) took place
in the isolated, far corner muskeg wilderness of northeastern B.C., about
80 kilometers (as the raven flies) north of the small town of Fort Nelson,
in the middle of a large identified geological formation (1.3 million
hectares) dubbed the Horn River Basin.
For three and a half months, over a 111 day period, from sometime in
January to April 27, 2010, Apache fracked continuously, day and night,
an apparently unprecedented total of 274 fracks, averaging 2 and a
half (2.5) fracks per day. The machines never stopped running, the din
of the giant diesel engines kept blasting their high-pitched frequencies,
far more annoying than the resonating vuvuselas at the 2010 World Cup
in South Africa that the world’s audience kept complaining about.
The fracks occurred on Apache’s remote groomed clearcut (called a
“pad”), identified as APA 70-K Pad. The pad is located at its Two Island Lake Operations area,
which it partner shares with energy giant Encana. Nearby to the 70-K Pad, are more similar multiwell
pad sites, with many more to come, along with a number of Apache and Encana newly
constructed facilities, including a new water treatment plant
in the isolated, far corner muskeg wilderness of northeastern B.C., about
80 kilometers (as the raven flies) north of the small town of Fort Nelson,
in the middle of a large identified geological formation (1.3 million
hectares) dubbed the Horn River Basin.
For three and a half months, over a 111 day period, from sometime in
January to April 27, 2010, Apache fracked continuously, day and night,
an apparently unprecedented total of 274 fracks, averaging 2 and a
half (2.5) fracks per day. The machines never stopped running, the din
of the giant diesel engines kept blasting their high-pitched frequencies,
far more annoying than the resonating vuvuselas at the 2010 World Cup
in South Africa that the world’s audience kept complaining about.
The fracks occurred on Apache’s remote groomed clearcut (called a
“pad”), identified as APA 70-K Pad. The pad is located at its Two Island Lake Operations area,
which it partner shares with energy giant Encana. Nearby to the 70-K Pad, are more similar multiwell
pad sites, with many more to come, along with a number of Apache and Encana newly
constructed facilities, including a new water treatment plant
Carol Linnitt | Gas Fracking War In British Columbia’s Wildlands
Carol Linnitt | Gas Fracking War In British Columbia’s Wildlands
Independent Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in British Columbia are calling upon Premier Christy Clark to launch a comprehensive investigation into hydraulic fracturing. This demand comes late in the game, some say, after the world’s largest fracking operations have already taken place in the remote and pristine wilds of the province.
BC’s two Independent MLAs, Bob Simpson and Vicki Huntington, are not alone in their request for a full examination of the human and environmental health implications of the province’s unconventional gas resources. Supporting the appeal are numerous citizen and environmental groups, journalists, and First Nation’s representatives. They believe the rapid development of gas in BC’s north is taking place without consideration of the costs to public health and safety.
Bob Simpson, MLA for Caribou North, worries that mounting public concern could lead to a high profile confrontation between industry and environmental groups, much like those seen in the 1990s over logging practices. “I’m concerned this is going to be our next war in the woods,” Simpson says.
The growing list of threats to drinking water and public health posed by fracking is the chief driver behind the recent call for a thorough, non-partisan investigation into the process by a special legislative committee.
“It is incumbent on the government to ensure it fully understands the cumulative impacts associated with developing this resource,” says Vicki Huntington, MLA for Delta South, adding that public policy is forcing the rapid expansion of unconventional gas in regions like BC’s northeast.
In light of growing public concerns, the MLAs are demanding a full review of the economic, environmental and health implications of unconventional gas drilling before the province encourages further development.
More courageous jurisdictions, such as Quebec and New York, have called for a moratorium
Independent Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in British Columbia are calling upon Premier Christy Clark to launch a comprehensive investigation into hydraulic fracturing. This demand comes late in the game, some say, after the world’s largest fracking operations have already taken place in the remote and pristine wilds of the province.
BC’s two Independent MLAs, Bob Simpson and Vicki Huntington, are not alone in their request for a full examination of the human and environmental health implications of the province’s unconventional gas resources. Supporting the appeal are numerous citizen and environmental groups, journalists, and First Nation’s representatives. They believe the rapid development of gas in BC’s north is taking place without consideration of the costs to public health and safety.
Bob Simpson, MLA for Caribou North, worries that mounting public concern could lead to a high profile confrontation between industry and environmental groups, much like those seen in the 1990s over logging practices. “I’m concerned this is going to be our next war in the woods,” Simpson says.
The growing list of threats to drinking water and public health posed by fracking is the chief driver behind the recent call for a thorough, non-partisan investigation into the process by a special legislative committee.
“It is incumbent on the government to ensure it fully understands the cumulative impacts associated with developing this resource,” says Vicki Huntington, MLA for Delta South, adding that public policy is forcing the rapid expansion of unconventional gas in regions like BC’s northeast.
In light of growing public concerns, the MLAs are demanding a full review of the economic, environmental and health implications of unconventional gas drilling before the province encourages further development.
More courageous jurisdictions, such as Quebec and New York, have called for a moratorium
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Driller halts Pennsylvania fracking after blowout
Driller halts Pennsylvania fracking after blowout | Reuters
Chesapeake Energy suspended the use of a controversial natural-gas production technique in Pennsylvania on Thursday as it worked to contain a well blowout that spilled toxic fluid into a local waterway.
Chesapeake, one of the state's biggest shale gas producers, will use a mix of plastic, ground-up tires and heavy mud to plug the well - an operation that echoes BP's "top kill" effort to seal its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well last year.
The company said it still did not know the cause of the blowout a day and a half after it occurred.
The accident in northeastern Pennsylvania has stoked an already fierce debate in the United States over hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" - a process to release gas trapped in shale formations by blasting a mix of water, sand and chemicals into the rock.
Proponents say extracting shale gas through fracking will slash U.S. reliance on foreign oil and cut carbon emissions.
President Barack Obama has made natural gas the cornerstone of his energy policy, in part thanks to the huge reserves unlocked by the use of fracking. Shale gas now accounts 23 percent of U.S. natural gas....
Workers lost control of the hydraulic fracturing well in the state's Marcellus Shale natural gas formation at 11:45 p.m. (1545 GMT) on Tuesday.
Tests from the nearby Towanda Creek indicated little contamination, Chesapeake added.
Gas drilling in Pennsylvania, and in particular in the Marcellus Shale play, has drawn the attention of major energy companies due to estimates that the region holds enough gas to meet total U.S. needs for a decade or more.
Senator Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, on Thursday defended the use of fracking as a way to boost U.S. energy supplies, and said the technique has not resulted in any documented cases of groundwater contamination in his home state, where it has been used since 1948.
The Pennsylvania spill "has nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing," Inhofe said in an interview with Fox News Radio, noting the spill was above ground.
Experts mulled the possibility that the company might abandon the well after the operation to plug it.
Local residents were evacuated from the scene. All but one family had returned to their homes by Wednesday night, and Chesapeake said no one was hurt.
Chesapeake Energy suspended the use of a controversial natural-gas production technique in Pennsylvania on Thursday as it worked to contain a well blowout that spilled toxic fluid into a local waterway.
Chesapeake, one of the state's biggest shale gas producers, will use a mix of plastic, ground-up tires and heavy mud to plug the well - an operation that echoes BP's "top kill" effort to seal its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well last year.
The company said it still did not know the cause of the blowout a day and a half after it occurred.
The accident in northeastern Pennsylvania has stoked an already fierce debate in the United States over hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" - a process to release gas trapped in shale formations by blasting a mix of water, sand and chemicals into the rock.
Proponents say extracting shale gas through fracking will slash U.S. reliance on foreign oil and cut carbon emissions.
President Barack Obama has made natural gas the cornerstone of his energy policy, in part thanks to the huge reserves unlocked by the use of fracking. Shale gas now accounts 23 percent of U.S. natural gas....
Workers lost control of the hydraulic fracturing well in the state's Marcellus Shale natural gas formation at 11:45 p.m. (1545 GMT) on Tuesday.
Tests from the nearby Towanda Creek indicated little contamination, Chesapeake added.
Gas drilling in Pennsylvania, and in particular in the Marcellus Shale play, has drawn the attention of major energy companies due to estimates that the region holds enough gas to meet total U.S. needs for a decade or more.
Senator Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, on Thursday defended the use of fracking as a way to boost U.S. energy supplies, and said the technique has not resulted in any documented cases of groundwater contamination in his home state, where it has been used since 1948.
The Pennsylvania spill "has nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing," Inhofe said in an interview with Fox News Radio, noting the spill was above ground.
Experts mulled the possibility that the company might abandon the well after the operation to plug it.
Local residents were evacuated from the scene. All but one family had returned to their homes by Wednesday night, and Chesapeake said no one was hurt.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Fracking Banned In New Jersey/ S-2576
Tim Scolnick Fracking Banned In New Jersey
On Friday, New Jersey legislators unanimously voted for S-2576, a bill which prohibits hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) for natural gas in the state.
S-2576 is largely symbolic since New Jersey does not use fracking to drill for natural gas. This bill does, however, send a clear message to the industry as well as neighbouring states looking to tap into the Marcellus Shale formation which reaches into New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and northwestern N.J.
In February, New York announced it will lift its 7-month moratorium on fracking in June despite public opposition and nearly two weeks ago, Pennsylvania’s Republican Governor Tom Corbett overturned a de-facto ban on leasing sensitive forest land for shale gas development. Additionally, the New Jersey decision to ban dangerous fracking is timely since the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), an intra-state agency overseeing the health of the Delaware River, is presently drafting regulations to control how and where fracking may proceed in the River’s bordering states.
As the New York Times has revealed, hydraulic fracturing poses a significant risk to water quality, public health and the environment.. The claim that gas is “clean” energy is also challenged by the sizable amounts of global warming pollution, comparable to coal, emitted in the entire life cycle of gas production and consumption.
In a Senate hearing earlier in the week, fracking lobbyists argued that Marcellus Shale offers vast and cheap reserves of natural gas. Ed Waters, Director of government affairs for the Chemistry Industry Council of New Jersey said, "If we don’t have that cheap supply of natural gas, we can’t compete in the global markets."
Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), Chairman of the Environment Committee, accepted that natural gas seems on the surface to represent a cheap supply of energy, but countered that:
On Friday, New Jersey legislators unanimously voted for S-2576, a bill which prohibits hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) for natural gas in the state.
S-2576 is largely symbolic since New Jersey does not use fracking to drill for natural gas. This bill does, however, send a clear message to the industry as well as neighbouring states looking to tap into the Marcellus Shale formation which reaches into New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and northwestern N.J.
In February, New York announced it will lift its 7-month moratorium on fracking in June despite public opposition and nearly two weeks ago, Pennsylvania’s Republican Governor Tom Corbett overturned a de-facto ban on leasing sensitive forest land for shale gas development. Additionally, the New Jersey decision to ban dangerous fracking is timely since the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), an intra-state agency overseeing the health of the Delaware River, is presently drafting regulations to control how and where fracking may proceed in the River’s bordering states.
As the New York Times has revealed, hydraulic fracturing poses a significant risk to water quality, public health and the environment.. The claim that gas is “clean” energy is also challenged by the sizable amounts of global warming pollution, comparable to coal, emitted in the entire life cycle of gas production and consumption.
In a Senate hearing earlier in the week, fracking lobbyists argued that Marcellus Shale offers vast and cheap reserves of natural gas. Ed Waters, Director of government affairs for the Chemistry Industry Council of New Jersey said, "If we don’t have that cheap supply of natural gas, we can’t compete in the global markets."
Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), Chairman of the Environment Committee, accepted that natural gas seems on the surface to represent a cheap supply of energy, but countered that:
Rondeau and the Gas Industry/Sinclair Field
Province of Manitoba | News Releases
Provincial initiatives to spur oil investment include:
· a retail sales tax exemption for drilling and service rigs and other equipment used for oil and gas exploration, and
· a change in the Manitoba Drilling Incentive Program to encourage investment in water-flood projects in which salt water is re-injected into oil pools to increase oil recovery.
The future also looks promising for Sinclair field, Manitoba’s newest and most significant oil field, said Rondeau. Last year 304 wells were drilled in Sinclair. The field now accounts for more than 30 per cent of the province’s total oil production. A new 18-kilometre pipeline now carries more than 7,500 barrels of crude oil per day from the Sinclair field to Cromer where it enters the Enbridge interprovincial pipeline system.
Provincial initiatives to spur oil investment include:
· a retail sales tax exemption for drilling and service rigs and other equipment used for oil and gas exploration, and
· a change in the Manitoba Drilling Incentive Program to encourage investment in water-flood projects in which salt water is re-injected into oil pools to increase oil recovery.
The future also looks promising for Sinclair field, Manitoba’s newest and most significant oil field, said Rondeau. Last year 304 wells were drilled in Sinclair. The field now accounts for more than 30 per cent of the province’s total oil production. A new 18-kilometre pipeline now carries more than 7,500 barrels of crude oil per day from the Sinclair field to Cromer where it enters the Enbridge interprovincial pipeline system.
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