Fracking is the technique by which natural gas (and sometimes oil) is extracted by hydraulically fracturing rocks deep underground to make them release their fossil fuel contents. In the last five to 10 years, it has changed the global energy balance and prospects. In particular, it has allowed the United States to essentially become energy independent and even a producer. It has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US and possibly millions worldwide. And it has allowed new fossil fuel producers, such as Argentina, to enter the market.
But fracking has brought with it huge controversies and disputes. While in the US 30,000 shale gas wells were drilled between 2011 and 2014, the United Kingdom, France and Germany have banned the process and not a single well has been drilled there. In Algeria, where some studies estimated the reserves as second only to America’s, the government launched an ambitious programme to use this technique to raise its total gas production by 40 per cent, but large protests erupted in the region where the wells were drilled and continued for months.
Most recently, in what was described as a “game changer”, the state of Oklahoma recorded 35 earthquakes of magnitude higher than three in just the week from June 17 to June 24, 2015. Previous to the fracking boom, the rate of such earthquakes was only one or two per year. It increased to 562 per year in 2014, i.e. 12 per week, and this then tripled by June 2015.
Earthquakes are one of the issues at stake. Indeed the UK stopped the process halfway through the first drill in 2010 when minor earthquakes were immediately recorded. But there are other, even more serious threats that opponents of fracking raise and sometimes document in shocking detail.
First and foremost, shale gas wells come with a definite risk of leakage of the water and chemicals that are used in the fracking process. The leaked fluids can then contaminate the underground water supplies, with very dangerous health consequences. Indeed, numerous videos and documentaries have now been produced to show a variety of health effects that have been observed near shale gas wells, such as recurrent nosebleeds, nauseas and hair loss. A very recent study found that near shale gas sites, babies are born significantly smaller in size and low in weight than babies born elsewhere. Additional impacts have been recorded on animals, including birds, near fracking sites.
Secondly, fracking uses very large amounts of water to crack the rocks by high-pressure injections. That water is taken from natural reserves underground, which are often vital resources in regions where water is scarce and difficult to pump up. Moreover, the water is filled with chemicals and nuclear products to help the high-pressure fracturing of the rocks and the elimination of the wastewater carries risks of leaks, spills, or sometimes just easy, illegal dumping in nearby lakes — acts that border on the criminal. A recent report by the US Environmental Protection Agency cleared the fracking industry from “systematic” or “widespread” contamination of the water that goes into people’s homes, but did cite a number of dreadful cases. In the state of North Dakota, 18 million gallons (68 million litres) of toxic fluids were spilled between 2006 and 2014, according to a New York Times investigation.
And if that were not enough, environmental activists have pointed out that methane gas (the shale gas) that is released from rocks is not always captured in full and any amount of methane that escapes into the atmosphere contributes significantly to global warming, as methane is one of the foremost greenhouse gases around — much worse than carbon dioxide.
Observers tend to agree that if done right, fracking can represent an economic boon for many countries. “Done right” means making sure that the gas is fully captured and that the by-products of the process are totally recovered and dumped deep underground, without any risk of leakage or spilling. This requires both high technology and strict monitoring of the companies that undertake this.
Indeed, shale gas is much cheaper than most energy production processes, both traditional (oil extraction and nuclear power plants) and renewable, environmentally friendly ones (solar, wind, etc.). And this raises obvious concerns for people who worry that we have for too long favoured economic bottom lines over environmental responsibility.
Economic growth saw huge increases worldwide in the past decade, but then drastically slowed down, with China, Brazil and other countries going through major economic crises, the price of oil plummeting recently, etc. The short and long-term future of the energy market is unclear, but fracking is not going to disappear, considering its economic attractiveness. Indeed, there are calls to lift the ban in the UK and other places.
There are, however, as we have seen, serious potential risks in the process if it is not carefully monitored and controlled. We need to proceed with utmost caution.
Nidhal Guessoum is a professor of Physics and Astronomy at the American University of Sharjah. You can follow him on Twitter at: twitter.com/@NidhalGuessoum.
