The Fracking debate hots up as China County Stops It
Unwelcome to dig
Pic Courtesy: Greenteacher.com
Fracking Companies never called it an easy, or pretty way to get oil or gas out of the earth. The technology behind it can be messy, besides being highly unconventional, with an impact on the environment that is only now being understood in its entirety.
Fracking involves drilling down into the earth and eventually injecting a high-pressure water mixture at the oil or gas bearing shale to force the gas outside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the oil/gas to flow out to the head of the well. The US has seen the biggest cohort of firms emerge, with the fracking industry widely credited for making the US the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil today, and an effective counterweight to the OPEC cartel.
However, fracking has not had an easy run outside the US. Just a day ago came news that a county in western China has stopped drilling for shale gas after protests by residents who suspected fracking work was the cause of a series of earthquakes that led to two deaths. The first quake hit Sichuan province’s Rongxian county on Sunday morning, followed by two more, including a magnitude 4.9 temblor on Monday afternoon that caused the two fatalities. Twelve people were injured.
The county government said mining activities and handling of dangerous chemicals were also suspended but would be gradually restored.
So why does Fracking arouse anger? Because, it can cause a lot more than minor earthquakes in the area.
As fracking requires the drilling company to drill past the water tables to reach the underlying oil and gas. The risk of chemical exposure to the water is high.
Another issue with fracking is the practice uses massive amounts of fresh water, and once the water is chemically treated, the practice leaves behind a toxic liquid waste, unusable for anything else. Which is very troublesome for vast swathes of the planet facing looming water shortages.
As Fracking forces apart the shale rocks to tap into the source of oil and gas, it can cause damage to non-oil bearing rocks as well, resulting in methane forcing it’s way upward to the surface, contaminating the water you drink. As this celebrated video proves, it is a very real risk.
Thus, you have a situation where not just China, other places with high potential from fracking for oil and gas are also leery of this technique. The UK is one prime example where protestors have been mobilised against fracking in Lancashire. With 3.7Trillion cubic metres of gas estimated in the Bowland shale, that runs across north and central England, the government has a tough balancing act at hand, of higher energy security versus potential damage to the environment. Thus, you have the labour opposition promising to ban it, the Scottish with a self imposed moratorium on exploration, and the Welsh government saying they will not consider any applications.
In India too, while some tracts have been identified as high potential, it seems like fracking will not really see a dawn here, what with the much more densely packed population, poor access to water and high cost of onshore land, which will probably make it unviable at existing prices.
