Good sources to learn more about shale gas drilling?

I’m interested in finding out what unbiased, responsible sources are available regarding shale gas drilling. The websites I’ve found most helpful in trying to understand the risks and opportunities involved are these:

      http://www.fractracker.org/  

      http://www.gasdrillingtechnotes.org/ 

      http://www.texassharon.com/links/barnett-shale-blogs/

I realize that community groups opposing fracking might be considered biased, but from what I can tell, most communities in shale gas territory started out supportive. In places where that has changed, as in Sharon, TX, it might be useful to understand why.  But I’d be interested to hear recommendations. 

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Permalink Reply by Billy Park Whyde on February 16, 2012 at 5:58pm

Might it be that special interest groups target these areas? The anti smoking cartel usually starts near a university town where they will grant a university grant money to establish a powerful biased data base to begin with. They in state documents report that in order to get elected officials on the band wagon for a ban you need only 3% of the public! 

You might want to consider the populace that supported drilling and fracking might have relocated to the Virgin Islands also. 

Permalink Reply by mbc on February 16, 2012 at 6:06pm

I have found one of the best all around resources to be ODNR. 

http://www.ohiodnr.com/mineral/shale/tabid/23415/Default.aspx  They involve resources from the EPA, the Farm Bureau, Penn State, Ohio State, GWPC (Ground Water Protection Council), just to name a few.  It is quite comprehensive.

Here, also, is a link that may be helpful  http://fracfocus.org/

0l1a6laz7smpfPermalink Reply by 0l1a6laz7smpf on February 16, 2012 at 6:42pm

This is interesting...this is the diagram page...but also take a look at the home page at this site.   Found it on google search.

http://www.exploreshale.org/

do scroll down as there is much info towards the bottom of the page.

Permalink Reply by Carol Kuniholm on February 17, 2012 at 8:58am

Thanks, VG. That http://www.exploreshale.org/ site is a great presentation of shale gas drilling. And mbc, http://fracfocus.org/ has some great info - including that "find a well" map. Do you know of any sites for PA or NY as comprehensive as the Ohio site?

Two other sites I've been looking at: http://www.journeyoftheforsaken.com/consortiumofthefraced.htm and http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?tag=texas  I find myself wondering at what point people switch from being supporters to opponents of fracking. And wondering what we could learn from areas that are ten years ahead of us in their experience of fracking. 

Permalink Reply by David Perotto on February 17, 2012 at 9:49am

Carol,

Try http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/205.html

Note that the DEC states that mining is an important industry in NY. Maybe the opponents can become supporters. We need jobs, domestic fossil fuels & a cleaner burning fuel.   BINGO!!! Shale gas.

Dave

Permalink Reply by mbc on February 17, 2012 at 10:06am

Check each state's Department of Natural Resources website for more detailed information from them individually.

The following is from the history pages of the FracFocus website - linked here... http://fracfocus.org/hydraulic-fracturing-how-it-works/history-hydr...

Hydraulic fracturing is not new. The first commercial application of hydraulic fracturing as a well treatment technology designed to stimulate the production of oil or gas likely occurred in either the Hugoton field of Kansas in 1946 or near Duncan Oklahoma in 1949.  In the ensuing sixty plus years, the use of hydraulic fracturing has developed into a routine technology that is frequently used in the completion of gas wells, particularly those involved in what’s called “unconventional production,” such as production from so-called “tight shale” reservoirs. The process has been used on over 1 million producing wells. As the technology continues to develop and improve, operators now fracture as many as 35,000 wells of all types (vertical and horizontal, oil and natural gas) each year.

I don't think you will find too many people who switch from supporting to opposing.   There will always be a few of course, but it's like finding an oil/gas well where hydraulic fracturing has contaminated the local aquifer.  Facts should always supersede hearsay and what if's.

The facts about "Fracking" (from ODNR)

  • Hydraulic fracturing has been used safely in more than 1 million U.S. wells.

  • The first commercial fracking well was drilled more than 60 years ago in Oklahoma.

  • Hydraulic fracturing has been used for more than 40 years in Ohio to stimulate oil and gas well production.

  • Since 1990, more than 15,000 Ohio wells have used hydraulic fracturing. During that time the Division of Mineral Resources Management has conducted a number of water well investigation complaints – none of the investigations revealed problems due to hydraulic fracturing.

I suspect most of the opponents you will run across already had a mindset to oppose, regardless of fact.  Me, I never thought about it, till people started talking.  Then I did a little homework and found there was no smoke, let alone a fire.  There are wells all around me, and have been for years, decades.  I didn't worry about them in ignorance and now I don't worry about them in knowledge.

Anybody can yell fire in a crowded room and get the reaction, attention, they want without there being an actual fire.  I, personally, am not prone to running around like the proverbial, and literal, chicken with it's head cut off.

I hope researching and finding the facts eases your worries, Carol.

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on February 17, 2012 at 11:47am

The first commercial hydraulic fracturing treatment was performed on a Stanolind (forerunner company to Amoco Production Company) lease in the Hugoton gas field in Grant County, Kansas, in 1946. The fluid used was surplus napalm left over from WW2. The results were so positive that the other nearly 800 company wells in the same field were fracced over the next 15 or so years. The well first fracced using this technique was still productive in the early 1980's when I began my career with Amoco. Frac, baby, frac!!! (but by all means, drill the well safely first!

Permalink Reply by Tom Copley on February 17, 2012 at 10:42am
Permalink Reply by Carol Kuniholm on February 17, 2012 at 12:13pm

The wikimarcellus site is amazing - what a ton of helpful information. 

I understand that occasional mistakes in drilling can happen - but is there anyplace to get accurate statistics on how often, and what happens afterward? There are definitely people who have gone from positive to negative - some of them share their stories at another site I've been looking at: http://www.marcellus-shale.us  Is it possible that they become anti-fracking activists because they're treated so badly after mistakes happen? Could the industry do more to make fracking safer? What level of risk is acceptable? Who should decide?

Permalink Reply by Tom Copley on February 17, 2012 at 4:49pm

I'm not saying that there are any issues worth mentioning with the process of hydraulic fracturing. I've been studying this for a while now and haven't found any published examples. The well known one in Dimock, PA, featured in the Josh Fox film Gasland, is generally conceded not to have been actually caused by fracking. That certainly is not the same as saying no mistakes were made in Dimock so far as spilled drilling fluid and failed well casing cement jobs. The latter may have allowed natural gas to leak into the ground water, assuming that's what really happened. BTW, a few of the oilfield service companies are now introducing so-called "green" drilling and completion fluids that are made with biodegradable substances. That sort of begs the whole question as to why "green fluids" are even necessary if there are no issues to be concerned about. Here's a little blog article I wrote on the subject, Can you safely drink fracturing fluid? I know, who would want to drink that stuff? For readers who are confused about what hydraulic fracturing is all about, there is a pretty good industry-backed web site, hydraulicfracturing.com. I also took my own stab at introducing the subject on Wikimarcellus. Also, Wikipedia gives a lot of technical-type info about fracking--kind of at the sorry-I-ever-asked-level of detail. Hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by Billy Park Whyde on February 17, 2012 at 5:41pm

Mark some of the green is actually orange yep citric acid based. 

Permalink Reply by Tom Copley on February 17, 2012 at 5:58pm

The spill of fracturing fluid is a matter of public record. PDEP shut them down for a month. I'm not so sure about the leaking gas. Didn't a house blow up in Dimock? I thought the driller had drilled through a pocket of gas, and somehow it leaked out the well casing? My only statement was that mistakes were made, but they didn't seem to have anything to do with the frac jobs unless you want to count the well casing issues. Don't get me wrong. I know that Cabot has a great number wells in Susquehanna Co., and they are some of the most successful in the play. Dimock is one blemish on an otherwise okay safety record as far as I know. I wish them well.

Regarding green drilling and frac fluids, you seem to imply that companies like Baker and Hughes and Halliburton are developing these for PR purposes to show how responsible and green they are. Somehow I think their reasons for doing so are more substantial than that. Perhaps there is actually a need for them!

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