ENV250Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 33: Directional Drilling, Tight Gas, Habitat Destruction
Document Summary
Hydraulic fracturing (fracking: rock is fractured/split by high pressure liquid, then the gas is released and you must capture it to use it. Tight gas and oil: natural gas found in sandstone and limestone. How does it work: horizontal drilling, vertical drilling, water, sand, and chemicals blasted into rock, gas or oil is shaken out. Vertical drilling: must drill miles below the water table, you blast chemicals down and shake the rock to fracture it. Horizontal drilling: vertically drill down once and then go out horizontally. It takes a lot of water and chemicals. North dakota is now second to texas in oil formation: oil not natural gas. We give it for free to industry and then they are mixing it with toxic. It takes 2-7milliond gallons for each well chemicals and leave it there. Getting a bit better at cleaning the water and reusing it. Huge quantity of water: drawing it from aquafers, lakes, rivers.
