Posted on 12/06/2008 8:25:06 PM PST by Coleus
Advanced drilling techniques that blast millions of gallons of water into 400-million-year-old shale formations a mile underground are opening up "unconventional" gas fields touted as a key to the nation's energy future. The mother lode of these deposits, where natural gas is so tightly locked in deep rocks that it's costly and complicated to extract, is the Marcellus shale underlying the Appalachians.
Geologists call the Marcellus a "super giant" gas field. Penn State geoscientist Terry Engelder believes it could supply the natural gas needs of the United States for 14 years. But as word spread over the past year that a 54,000-square-mile shale field from southern New York to West Virginia promised to yield a trillion dollars' worth of gas, making millionaires of local landowners, environmental alarms were sounded.
Would gas wells damage water wells? Would chemicals poison groundwater? Would the pristine upstate reservoirs that supply drinking water to New York City be befouled? "This gas well drilling could transform the heavily forested upper Delaware watershed from a wild and scenic natural habitat into an ugly industrial landscape that is forever changed," said Tracy Carluccio of Delaware Riverkeeper.
She'd like a moratorium on drilling to allow an inventory of natural areas to be done first. So loud were the protests in New York that Gov. David Paterson directed the Department of Environmental Conservation to update its oil and gas drilling regulations to reflect the advanced drilling technology, which uses millions of gallons of water and poses waste-disposal challenges.
Now, while new drilling rigs sprout in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, development of the Marcellus in New York is on hold until next year, while the DEC holds hearings and drafts regulations. Gas developers say environmental alarms are exaggerated and New York could miss out on much-needed capital investment and jobs
(Excerpt) Read more at northjersey.com ...
Same type of formation, same type of drilling and exploitation techniques, same high yield of clean, efficient natural gas.
And no wells have been "befouled", no "pristine" water sources have been poisoned, the landscape is pretty much unchanged, the landowners continue to farm and ranch, while cleaning up in royalties...and there are gobs of good jobs.
Of course, these environmentalists and regulators being liberals, I doubt they have any interest in facts -- especially if they compete with the liberal agenda.
“Now, while new drilling rigs sprout in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, development of the Marcellus in New York is on hold until next year, while the DEC holds hearings and drafts regulations. Gas developers say environmental alarms are exaggerated and New York could miss out on much-needed capital investment and jobs”
Typical NY state. Keep voting for Democrats and stay on welfare. These areas will never be drilled. Mark it down.
“This gas well drilling could transform the heavily forested upper Delaware watershed from a wild and scenic natural habitat into an ugly industrial landscape that is forever changed,” said Tracy Carluccio of Delaware Riverkeeper. She’d like a moratorium on drilling to allow an inventory of natural areas to be done first.”
Send this idiot out to count the blades of grass while the rest of us drill for gas and create jobs.
In the minds of these “environmentalists”, water flows up hill.
Underground, water flows “uphill” all the time. I’d rather have clean water than cheap gas.
The natural gas formations are thousands of feet BELOW the water table.
But the well casings pass through aquifers and are known to leak.
And the amount of leakage amounts to a fart in a hurricane. Big whoop.
Down below the lowest depths at which potable water is found, surface casing surrounded by cement is used. Inside the surface casing is the production casing. Inside the production casing is the production tubing — which is the pipe that the fluid or gas being produced flows.
If the production casing leaks, [and before it is repaired] it leaks into the surface casing or if below the level of the surface casing it leaks into zones which are already briney.
Above the zone being produced, additional cement is used to shut off the productive zone from the zones above.
Drilling mud, the stuff used to keep the well bore from collapsing or the pressures present from blowing the drill string out of the well during drilling is relatively benign stuff. Rules have changed, but from what I have been told, a moderate amount of it in your garden would probably just cause vegetable yields to increase. In zones where no cement is used, the drill mud remains. It tends to clog up the pores of the rock adjacent to the well bore [one of its functions.]
Salt water disposal wells are a bit more of a problem. Although they have the same requirements concerning surface casing. The problem with these is that the waters being disposed of can sometimes cut through the tubing and the production casing. However, testing requirements are strictly enforced.
One other word of caution. Hydrogen sulfide in “sour” gas can indeed be deadly, but is not that persistent in the environment. A leak is a crisis, not a problem for the future. I do not know whether the gas being targeted is sour or sweet. That is the only thing the would cause me concern if I lived or worked very close to a well.
If you want to worry go ahead. Nothing in life if perfect, but [with the possible exception of high pressure sour gas] IMO there are many worse things than having gas wells in your area.
The technology for drilling and cementing surface casing is very mature and extremely successful.
Be sure to drink plenty of that water when riding your bicycle to work and pulling the firewood wagon to heat your home.
One LARGE concern not mentioned in your excellent summary is that MILLIONS of gallons of water are needed to drill a well. Since this is all being done in rural areas (no well can be drilled on a parcel smaller than 5 acres), my state (PA) is worried about the drillers drying up everyone’s water wells when they pump water for the gas well drilling.
My own experience with multilateral horizontal wells is nonexistent, but giant frac jobs aren't something that get repeated every day. They are largely one time deals [occasionally performed more than once when the first frac did not obtain the desired result.]
In many locations, all the frac water used is hauled in. Depending on local water laws and permitting, it may also be obtained from surface sources such as ponds or rivers. Once again, a valid concern, but one with clear solutions. BTW, a high percentage of frac water is pumped back up after the process is complete leaving the sand behind to prop open the newly created or expanded cracks in the producing formation. That water in turn would need to trucked or piped be injected down a disposal well into a porous, permiable, briney non producing formation.
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