The End Of Fracking Is Closer Than You Think [View all]

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-end-of-fracking-is-closer-than-you-think-2014-9


The Cuadrilla drilling site is seen in Balcombe, southern England August 15, 2013. An oil explorer has suspended drilling in southern England in response to the threat of an escalating protest against fracking, the controversial process used to extract gas and oil from shale deposits that has transformed the U.S. energy market.

Canadian geologist David Hughes has some sober news for the Kool-Aid-drinking boosters of the United States' newfound eminence in fossil fuel production: it's going to go bust sooner rather than later.

Working with the Post Carbon Institute, a sustainability think-tank, Hughes meticulously analyzed industry data from 65,000 US shale oil and natural gas wells that use the much-ballyhooed extraction method of hydraulic fracturing, colloquially known as fracking. The process involves drilling horizontally as well as vertically, and then pumping a toxic cocktail of pressurized water, sand, and chemicals deep underground in order to break apart the rock formations that hold deposits of oil and gas.

Hughes found that the production rates at these wells decline, on average, 85 percent over three years.

"Typically, in the first year there may be a 70 percent decline," Hughes told VICE News. "Second year, maybe 40 percent; third year, 30 percent. So the decline rate is a hyperbolic curve. But nonetheless, by the time you get to three years, you're talking 80 or 85 percent decline for most of these wells."



Read more: https://news.vice.com/article/the-end-of-fracking-is-closer-than-you-think#ixzz3CtzrPlSb