Introduction

Fracking or Hydraulic fracking is at the center of discussion for the past ten years. Fracking has had a significant impact on the oil industry that operates the equipment that extracts oil/gas from the ground. Natural gas is and will continue to play a part in energy for years to come. This vital role will offer potential economic, energy security, and environmental benefits across the United States. Fracking is a process used to extract natural gas from deep under the earth. This process gives the energy companies the ability to extract oil and gas that was not otherwise reachable. This process involves pumping rushing water mixed with sand and chemicals into the well at ridiculous speed and pressure. The water makes a network of fissures in the rock-bed, and the flowing water forces sand into those fissures. This process holds the fissure open to allow the oil and gas companies to extract the gas.

Pouring nitroglycerin down the well led to the term “moonlighting.”

Fracking Discovery

Fracking can be traced back to 1862. It was during the battle of Virginia where Col. Edward A.L. Roberts saw what could be accomplished when firing explosive artillery into a narrow canal that obstructed the battlefield. This technique that Edward used was called superincumbent fluid tamping. On April 26th, 1865, Roberts received his first patent for an “Improvement” in exploding torpedoes in artesian wells.

In November of 1866, he was awarded a patent known as the “Exploding Torpedo.” This method for extracting Oil/Gas was implemented by packing a torpedo in an iron case that contained 15-20 pounds of powder.

The technique was immediately successful. Production from some wells increased 1,200% within a week of being shot — and the Roberts Petroleum Torpedo Company experienced booming business as a result. By 1980’s horizontal drilling along with multiple episodes of fracturing in a single well developed. Significant advances continued after 2000. Fractured wells increased from about 23,000 in 2000 to about 300,000 in 2015. Hydraulic fracturing had been successfully applied nearly one million times. And as of today, more than 2.5 million hydraulic fracturing have occurred worldwide.

A torpedo is an explosive device used, especially in the early days of the petroleum industry, to fracture the surrounding rock at the bottom of an oil well to stimulate the flow of oil and to remove built-up paraffin wax that would restrict the flow.

The first appearance of fracking innovation didn’t take place until the 1930-s. During this time, drillers used a non-explosive liquid substitute called acid instead of nitroglycerin. Modern hydraulic fracturing started in the 1940s, even though it was it originated in the 1860’s. Modern-day fracking didn’t begin until the 1990s. This was when George P. Mitchell created a new form of fracking, he took hydraulic fracturing and added horizontal drilling.

1700 1750 1800 1862

Theory of fracking using a torpedo in an artesian well. Modern hydraulic fracturing – “fracking” – can trace its roots to April 1865 when Edward A. L. Roberts received the first of his many patents for an “exploding torpedo.”

1900 1910 1920 1930 1945 1947

1948 First Commercial Application On March 17, 1949, a team of petroleum production experts converges on an oil well about 12 miles east of Duncan, Oklahoma to perform the first commercial application of hydraulic fracturing. 1949

1955 1959 1960 1965 1969 1970 1971 1972

Experimental Technology The first experimental hydraulic fracturing used napalm and sand, took place in 1947 in the Hugoton gas field in southwestern Kansas. This was based on the research of Floyd Farris of Stanolind Oil and Gas Corporation, who looked at the relationship between treatment pressures and well output.

1973 1974 1975

1979 1980 1985 1988

The cumulative footprint of a single new well can be as large as 30 acres. In places where hundreds or thousands of wells spring up across a landscape.

Energy Independence 1975 Gerald Ford encouraged the development of shale fracking to gain energy independence.

A BRIEF VISUAL HISTORY OF FRACKING

1989 1990

1995 2000 Natural gas development Natural Gas Technology took off in the 1990s when horizontal drilling was developed and combined with fracking. This enabled drills to descend down to 10,000 feet, so drillers could access gas trapped within shale layers.

2005 2008

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Heath

2014 Natural Resource Defense Council analysis of scientific studies reports serious health threats due to fracking

Oil Boom 2008 High oil and gas prices led to increasing development of fracking. 2020 PA Attorney General files criminal charges against Cabot oil and Gas Gorp and Range Resources.

2014 2018 2018 2020

Major Production 2018 US becomes major oil & gas producer in the world

Fracking is one of those things that people on both sides of the argument are incredibly passionate about. On one side, environmentalists decry fracking as one of the worst threats the environment has to face today, and on the other side, shareholders and people in the fracking industry point to the abundance of cheap, clean natural gas that fracking creates. Like everything else though, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.