Fracktured Landscapes | Paradigm Shifts in Resource Extraction

FRACKTURED LANDSCAPES

Alex Hill | LA 8201 | UMN

Paradigm Shifts in Resource Extraction | Hydraulic Fracturing, Massive Land Use Change, and Emerging Consequences

EMERGING CONSEQUENCES MASSIVE LAND-USE CHANGE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING’S FOOTPRINT

1 - 8 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER USED PER INJECTION 2 -7 MILLION LBS. SILICA SAND 40,000 GALLONS OF CHEMICAL COCKTAIL *50 - 600 CHEMICALS (# unknown due to PROPRIETARY BLENDS NO DISCLOSURE)

DRILL

WIDESPREAD GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION DUE TO METHANE MIGRATION AND SPILLS (over 1,000 documented cases) AVG. WELL PAD SIZE = 5 ACRES

HYDRAULIC FRACTURING | USE OF PRESSURIZED LIQUIDS, OFTEN INJECTED INTO A WELLBORE, TO FRACTURE BEDROCK (CREATE FISSURES) IN ORDER TO ALLOW GAS, OIL, OR GROUNDWATER TO BE RELEASED FROM THE TIGHT BEDROCK FORMATION. USED TO STIMULATE PUMP JACK OIL, NATURAL GAS, OR WATER WELLS WASTE WATER STORAGE OIL/GAS HOLDING TANK

METHANE FLARE

WATER +SAND + CHEMICALS = PROPPANT

1. DRILL | INSERT STEEL WELL CASING & CEMENT AQUIFER

LACK OF STRONG POLICY ALLOWS PRODUCERS TO EXPLOIT THE HALLIBURTON LOOPHOLE (no regulation on water except if waste is dumped directly into a water body)

BEDROCK & UNDERLYING SHALE FORMATIONS

4. REINJECT WASTE WATER FOR STORAGE 4. RECOVER RESOURCE 2. INJECT WATER + PROPPANT 10,000 - 15,000 PSI MARCELLUS FORMATION | 5,000 - 7,000FT. 3. UNLOCK TIGHT OIL/GAS RESOURCE

BAKKEN FORMATION | 7,000 - 10,000FT.

HORIZONTAL DRILLING - UP TO 5,000FT

CAN STIMULATE WELLS MULTIPLE TIMES DEPENDING ON FORMATIONS AND ROCK MECHANICS

HISTORIC OIL & NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION Thousand Barrels of Oil Historic Crude Oil & Natural Gas Annual Production in the United States

- EIA does not currently forescast a peak in domestic natural gas production 2035 estimates are 35.5 trillion cubic feet

Million Cubic Feet of Natural Gas 4,000,000 40,000,000

- EIA forecasts peak oil production in the U.S. at 4,000,000 thousand barrels around 2020 - Oil and Gas Boom of the 1950’s & 60’s left behind a legacy of enironmental degrdation and “ghost” towns in rural America

3,000,000 30,000,000 - Reduction in domestic oil production increases U.S. reliance on foreign imports

- Extractive industry encouraged

by U.S. Federal Gov’t. due to need for economic stimulation & post-9/11 energy policies

2,000,000 20,000,000

- Resource extraction via hydraulic fracturing takes-off drastically increasing domestic production

- High prices of imported oil & conventionally mined natural gas make renewables economically viable

1,000,000 10,000,000

Hydraulic Fracturing’s Breif History

0 1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950 1947

1960

1970

1952

1980

1900

2000

1991

2010

2003 2005

2020

2011 2012

1949 Over 2.5 million hydraullically fractured wells worldwide

First horizontal well drilled in Barnett Shale

First Successful Experimental Frack by Stanolind Oil Company - Hugoton, KS used a blend of gasoline and napalm to stimulate well

First Commercially Viable Frack

by Halliburton Oil Duncan, OK Initial use of “proppant” blends for fracturing in Soviet Union

First well drilled & fracked in Bakken Shale

Major spill in Pennsylvania on anniversy of BP Disaster

First well drilled & fracked in Marcellus Shale

65% of all new oil/gas wells produced using fracking

Energy Policy Act aka the “Halliburton Loophole” exempts underground injection/prpping agents in hydraulic fracturing from Series of 1.0 - 5.6 magnitude the Safe Water Drinking Act anthropogenic induced earhtquakes near/in Youngstown, OH

GLOBAL SHALE FORMATIONS CONTAINING RECOVERABLE SHALE GAS AND OIL 41 COUNTRIES 95 BASINS 132 INDIVIDUAL FORMATIONS WORLDWIDE RECOVERABLE SHALE RESOURCES

33.5 billion barrels of oil

7,500 trillion ft3 of natural gas

= 100 trillion ft3 of natural gas = 10 billion barrels of oil = aquifers of the United States

= shale formations Many of the formations being fracked in the United States underly major aquifers, something that has resulted in issues of widespread groundwater contamination Shale Reserves, also known as tight gas and tight oil, were previously inaccessible until the technology of hydraulic fracturing was discovered and applied to resource extraction.

EMERGING CONSEQUENCES THE BAKKEN and THREE FORKS SHALE PLAYS LIGHT POLLUTION ACROSS 200,773 mi2 OIL FIELDS 30% METHANE PRODUCED IS FLARED

=

100,000 MILLION ft3 METHANE DAILY

= 10,000 homes

ENOUGH TO POWER 500,000 HOMES and produces

= 10,000,000 ft3 methane

11.5 million lbs. CO2 DAILY

The combination of high priced crude oil and dramatically lower natural gas prices due to fracking in the Marcellus and Barnett Shales reduces the ECONOMIC FEASABILITY to capture methane in oil extraction wells, therefore it is FLARED OFF as a WASTE.

SPANS INTERNATIONAL BORDERS ACROSS 2 STATES AND 2 PROVINCES

MAPPING OUR ADDICTION FOSSIL FUEL HIGHWAY

EMERGING CONSEQUENCES FRACKTURED PERCEPTIONS MASSIVE LAND-USE CHANGE What is the truth behind pipelines? Are they really safer?

And what are we communicating to ourselves, and the rest of the world if we approve Keystone XL

KEYSTONE

ANTHROPOGENIC SEISMIC ACTIVITY

KEYSTONE XL

DUE TO WASTE WATER INJECTION DUE TO OIL/GAS EXTRACTION RICHTER SCALE RATING < 3.0 3.0 - 4.0 4.0 - 5.0 5.0 - 6.0 6.0 - 7.0

THE U.S. ALONE HAS 2,600,000 mi. OF OIL & NATURAL GAS PIPELINES ENOUGH IF STRETCHED OUT COULD WRAP AROUND THE EARTH 104 TIMES

WHERE WE WERE... the boom and bust of oil/coal WHERE WE ARE... new technology has provided access to industries in the 1960’-70’s left “ghost towns” and degraded lands across rural america

previusly inaccessible resources, reinvigorated flat economies, and provided post 9/11 america with energy “independence” it has brought with it a transient population and a new socioeconomic climate that threatens the livelihoods and cultures of local populations.

WHAT WILL BE THE LEGACY OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING?... currently scientists do not fully understand the

environmental ramifications of this process, nor is there transperency among the energy industries to provide a better understanding of possible consequences.

- will towns boom and bust leaving unused infrastructure and exiled populations with no sense of identity, meaning of place, or connection to the landscape?

- what is actually happening underground? what will be the ramifications of a global fracking culture that lays ruin to the planet all in the pursuit of wealth?

- is this yet another cycle of extraction and degredation or will we shift the paradigm and change economic & environmental policy?

- how can we take a technology this extraordinarily powerful and make it beautiful?

can we use safe chemistries to stimulate groundwater wells in water poor countries, inject c02 into bedrock as a form of

co2 sequestration, or use the technology in a new way for building demolition?

Photograph Credits:

Cover Image: Flickr by: femarshall49 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/84052087@N00/6911350705/sizes/o/in/photostream/ Slide 1 | Images comprising diagram my own Slide 2 | Flickr by : SkyTruth http://www.flickr.com/photos/skytruth/5453897486/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Slide 3 | Flickr: by M1kha http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikham/ Slide 4&5 | Wall Street Journal: http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79800/dnb_united_states_lrg.jpg Slide 6 | image my own Slide 7 | top left: Flickr by: afiler : http://www.flickr.com/photos/afiler/ top right: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/comeback-chronicles/go-north-young-man

Sources:

1. http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2013/03/26/G34045.1.full.pdf+html 2.http://www.energyxxi.org/shale 3.http://www.alternet.org/environment/north-dakota-oil-fracking-boom-creates-clash-money-and-devastation 4.http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2013/01/10/u-s-chambers-fracking-job-boom-behind-the-numbers/ 5.http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/usgs-releases-new-oil-and-gas-assessment-for-bakken-and-three-forks-formations.cfm 6. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog469/node/224 7. http://www.epa.ohio.gov/portals/0/General%20pdfs/gas%20flaring.pdf 8. http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/er/executive_summary.cfm 9. http://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/crudeoilreserves/ 10. http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/ 11. http://www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing 12. https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/stats/historicalbakkenoilstats.pdf 13. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2013/3013/fs2013-3013.pdf 14. http://blog.skytruth.org/2013/08/skytruth-the-bakken.html 15. http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/usshalegas/ 16. http://www2.epa.gov/hfstudy/study-potential-impacts-hydraulic-fracturing-drinking-water-resources-progress-report-0 17. http://www.fracfocusdata.org/DisclosureSearch/MapSearch.aspx 18. http://www.propublica.org/article/the-other-fracking-north-dakotas-oil-boom-brings-damage-along-with-prosperi 19. http://www.worc.org/userfiles/file/Oil%20Gas%20Coalbed%20Methane/Hydraulic%20Fracturing/Gone_for_Good.pdf 20. http://energywithjr.quora.com/The-History-of-Fracking-A-Timeline 21. http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/policysearch/default.htm?id=1439

Sources (continued): 22. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/

23. http://www.propublica.org/article/new-study-predicts-frack-fluids-can-migrate-to-aquifers-within-years 24. http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/guide/oilandgas/unconv.cfm 25. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404676/ 26. http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/portal/site/PHMSA/menuitem.

27. http://fracfocus.org/chemical-use/what-chemicals-are-used 28. http://www.hydrorelief.org/frackdata/references/65704543-Casing-Leaks.pdf