Hydraulic Fracturing and Natural Gas Drilling

Hydraulic fracturing is a technique developed initially to stimulate oil production from wells in declining oil reservoirs. More recently, it has been used to initiate oil and gas production in unconventional reservoirs where these resources were previously inaccessible. This process is now used in more than 90% of new oil and gas production wells. Hydraulic fracturing is done after a well is drilled and involves injecting large volumes of water, sand and specialized chemicals under enough pressure to fracture the formations holding the oil or gas. The sand holds the fractures open to allow the oil or gas to flow freely out of the formation and into a production well. This book explores hydraulic fracturing and safe drinking water act issues as well as the public health and environmental impacts of natural gas drilling.