Courts Will Take Up Case of Fracking v. Drilling
Dear Texas, welcome to Fracking 101. Your professors? Texas judges.
Denton’s vote last week to ban hydraulic fracturing within city limits drew a national spotlight, but resolved little in the bitter Barnett Shale dispute. Just hours after health and environmental advocates proclaimed victory, two opponents – the Texas Oil and Gas Association and Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson – challenged the ban in court.
But this much is clear: The legal wrangling will give Texans a free course on the widely misunderstood oilfield technique that put Texas at the forefront a national energy boom.
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Comments (37)
Mack Green
Thanks TT for illuminating some of the misunderstandings surrounding fracking, drilling, disposal wells, earthquakes, poorly designed wells, and legal boundaries of drillers, citizens, and RRC.
The drilling industry maintains "proprietary" silence and over at the Red legislature and RRC any disclosure other than "Drill Baby Drill" is akin to naked communism riding a bicycle down Main Street.
Marc McCord
Jim, you stated, "A frack job can take as long as 10 days, and wells are often fracked more than once."
While it is technically possible to frac a well many times it remains fiscal unfeasible to do so. The cost of re-frac'ing is about the same as the original frac job and it never restores the original production flow, which drops by about 70% during the first year of a gas well's life. Since gas production already costs 2.5 - 3 times the revenues generated from selling the gas it makes no sense to spend even more money re-frac'ing a well to lose even more money.
Can you cite me some cases where re-frac'ing has actually occurred?
Mimi Miller via Texas Tribune on Facebook
End fracking nationwide it's bad for the crust of the earth. Causing seismic tremors
Marc McCord
The article states, "Other examples abound. That includes journalists and others who refer to earthquakes in areas with heavy oil and gas activity as “frackquakes,” even though most experts have singled out disposal wells for oilfield waste – not fracking itself – as the likely trigger. "
That statement is patently false! USGS has clearly stated that MOST earthquakes near where frac'ing is done are caused by deep injection disposal wells, but that some are most likely caused by the frac'ing process itself. To understand this issue one has to first understand what frac'ing is and how it works.
The process involves sending a frac gun down into the horizontal lateral of the well bore than then setting off charges that blow holes through the casing pipe resulting in new fractures in surrounding shale layers, in addition to the already existing fractures in the shale. Then, after multiple stages of fracturing have occurred the gun is removed and a mixture of several million gallons of fresh water, sand and toxic, carcinogenic and neurotoxic chemicals are injected into the well bore at high pressure (up to 15,000 psi, or more) to expand the cracks in the shale. The purpose of the sand is to prop open the cracks so that pressures on the earth do not re-seal the fractured and block the flow of gas (or oil) into the casing pipe.
Some of the chemicals used in the mixture are there to dissolve rock so that it can be removed from the casing pipe to prevent blockage.
If a fracture takes place in the general vicinity of an existing geological fault line, then the very process of injecting all those fluids under enormous pressure can and will lubricate and liquify the gritty material between tectonic plates that allow them to slide against one another resulting in earthquakes. Lubrication and liquification cause ground subsidence which can also result in the formation of sinkholes.
To claim that earthquakes caused by processes of oil and gas production are only related to injection well operations is to fail to comprehend the very nature of the process and how it impacts the geology of the earth.
I do agree that many journalists confuse matters by writing about things they do not understand and misstate things in the process of trying to present it to their readers or listeners. Therein lies a huge part of the problem. If one gets his information directly from the oil and gas industry, then he or she is only going to get the story the industry wants publicized, and the industry is expert at presenting only that which they wish to have revealed.
Bill Blackmon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Don't mess with Texas' Energy Renaissance!
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No Mimi, that is false.
Peter Parker via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I believe A communication problem has happened. When the IPCC proposes leaving 2/3(carbon)of reserves in the dirt to avoid global cataclysmic disaster yet "the public"(arrogant leadership)is pitching tax dollars at which fuel leaked or leaks less, as if leaks or quakes are ever warranted.
Its all about the quickest dollar, great SELF sustaining action plain(sarcasm).
Jim Malewitz
Hi, Marc.
Thanks for your comments.
Yes, re-fracking a well is expensive, but it's not uncommon on older shale formations such as the Barnett, where operators might either seek to re-stimulate existing fractures in the rock or blast new ones. This Austin 2014 story (http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies-powersource/2014/11/13/EQT-gets-OK-to-look-at-drilling-in-shale-on-East-Allegheny-school-district-land/stories/201411130104) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette details growing interest in re-fracking in the Marcellus Shale. It notes that "Devon Energy refracked at least 13 wells in the Barnett Shale." If the website disclosure frackfocus.org made its data more accessible, we might be able to do more analysis of how many wells across the country -- from companies who have submitted info -- have been re-fracked. But alas, we're limited to opening one pdf at a time.
Mary Morrison via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"mischaracterized"? I think not. It's time for people to care about more than money. You can't breathe natural gas or drink oil.
Marc McCord
Ed Ireland is a bad joke that jsut won't go away. His use of semantics is so typical of what he does because he knows that truth and facts work against him. His own industry conflates the term "frac'ing" with drilling all the time ... except when arguing against those who oppose what they do, and then they try to show a disconnect between the opposition and the facts.
According to this article above, “The property — the mineral estate — isn’t left valueless. You can drill, but you just can’t frack,” Terrence Welch, a lawyer who has helped write drilling ordinances in several Texas cities, told the Tribune in July.
But industry advocates say current economics make drilling all but impossible without fracking, and the lawsuits cite Texas Supreme Court cases calling production in the Barnett Shale “entirely dependent on hydraulic fracturing.”
Since the Texas Supreme Court stated that production is "entirely dependent on hydraulic fracturing" it only makes sense that the whole process is intimately tied together. And since most citizens, as well as journalists, are not well educated in industry nomenclature one cannot be blamed for intermixing the terminology when the industry and the courts do the very same thing all the time.
The mantra of the oil and gas industry is, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with BS!"
Marc McCord
Jim, the Barnett has over 20,000 gas wells and who knows how many oil wells. Re-frac'ing has definitely been done in a very few cases, but it is enough cases to tell the industry that they are throwing money down a rat hole when they do it, which is why it is so rarely done. It is NOT a common practice, yet so many journalists write about it like it is an every day occurrence. That was my point.
Lynn Proctor via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Nobody wants to live near an nasty, stinking fracking well. It lowers property values.
Jim Malewitz
Also, Marc, re: earthquakes, I could have been clearer in that sentence, since there is still research being done about fracking's ties to earthquakes. Yes, a frack job, in a sense, is a sort of very tiny quake in itself. So far, though,the bulk of research links felt earthquakes to disposal wells. As the USGS notes: "Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” does not appear to be linked to the increased rate of magnitude 3 and larger earthquakes." (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/). But as those disposal well/quake studies have come out, many news outlets still use "fracking" in the headlines – an admittedly sexier term than disposal wells.
Elaine Fletcher via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Are you kidding me!! REALLY? "mischaracterized"? NOT!! Freaking is to blame PAIN and SIMPLE for the Earthquakes here in East Texas and messing up well Water for People!! It's ALL about money for the Oil Companies who only CARE about making MORE money and it IS just that PLAIN and SIMPLE!!
Pete Whitfill via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I still come back to my point that I made long before people started worrying about fracking: the sheer volume of fluid used in the process clearly must change the geology of the ground being injected. This means that any and every geologic study done for infrastructure or building projects done in the last 50 years near any of these sites are now contaminated and suspect! Projected lifetimes of projects will change drastically... Mark my words! Does anyone know of any fracking near nuclear plants?! Do you even care? My thoughts were labeled crazy and inflammatory four years ago. Am sure they will again but hopefully one or two of you will stop and think about this. I am not sure yet if my Facebook comments clear my conscience. Pretty sure they don't. So I will keep looking for ways to assist this cause. At the very least this industry need much more serious regulation and if you say it doesn't then please counter my challenge!
Steve Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Mischaracterized, that's just BS TT, Texas Trash.
Paula Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Two words - burning water! It's real and we have it in South Texas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LBjSXWQRV8
Rich Bonn via Texas Tribune on Facebook
stupid fracking ban... I can't fracking believe this stuff is going on.
Robert Martinez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I don't care for oil, gas or Fracking! Got rid of car, I ride the bus, but been shopping for a bicycle! Fracking is real bad for the local community drinking water!
Marc McCord
Jim, just as with the EPA, there are statements from USGS geologists and there are statements from USGS administrators which are in conflict with one another. Those who are the actual geologists and do the actual studies have indicated, on many occasions, there there is compelling evidence that frac'ing, as well as injection well operations, cause earthquakes. However, the administrators whose jobs are owed to the President (who promotes frac'ing) have to walk a fine line in support of the Administration's message even when it flies in the face of scientific reality.
The EPA did that very thing in Parker County, Texas, Pavilion, Wyoming and Dimock, Pennsylvania, where scientists found absolute proof of well contamination caused by drilling and frac'ing, yet administrators stated that no such proof existed. The scientists have degrees and careers in science. the administrators have no such credentials and have to toe the Administration line in order to keep their jobs even if that requires them to deny scientific facts. The same is true for USGS, and every other governmental agency.
I prefer to listen to the scientists because I know that the administrators are making political statements to retain their jobs, whereas the scientists are making statements based upon scientific observation and study.
Marc McCord
Pete Whitfill, please know that a LOT of us do hear what you are saying and we do agree with you. I raised the issue about frac'ing near dams, spillways and levees with the US Army Corps of Engineers at Joe Pool Reservoir in 2010, and was told that they had not even thought about the possibility of subsurface subsidence and what effects that might have it a sinkhole or earthquake occurred beneat a dam footing ... and then I found the BLM's Texas Resource Management Plan, which was first published in 1996, that described this very possibility and mandated a minimum seclusion zone of 3,000 feet from any USACE flood control device (dam, spillway or levee) for ANY construction project.
Comanche Peak, in Somervell County, sits in the middle of the Barnett Shale and is surrounded by gas wells everywhere you look. That may also be the case in other areas where nuclear power plants are located, and it is definitely a matter of great concern.
Many of us have been arguing these very points for 5 years or more with some measure of success. Our first objective is public education and then motivation for citizens to become involved. Our second objective is to achieve limits on when and where drilling can occur, such as we won in Dallas and now in Denton. The more people know about the oil and gas industry the more they fear the damages that industry does without concern for human health and safety, property values or the environment.
Personally, I am not opposed to oil and gas exploration and production, but I am very much opposed to ALL urban drilling and any other drilling that is done without the utmost conscious attention to safety and environmental protection. We only have one environment. When we destroy it we will become as extinct as the dinosaurs.
You can go to http://fracdallas.org/ to see how much effort we are making on these matters, and we welcome you support and contributions.
Chad W. Eaton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Showing a house to a good fracking Texan shortly. So true about the edu.
Carlitos Way via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Mischaracterized? Seriously Texas Tribune, I have to seriously think about deleting you from my news feed. Starting to see more and more right leaning propaganda from you. Fracking is destroying the environment(water sources, air quality) where it's done all over the United States. People are getting sick or are sick. The amount of water that has be used is ridiculous. It hasn't been mischaracterized at all. You're not telling people the truth. The average person in this country is being held hostage by the oil and gas industries love for the all mighty dollar. The people be damned.
Robert Brophy via Texas Tribune on Facebook
There are more important thing s but you just watch...
Jesse L Mabus via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I expect that in the name of journalistic integrity that you run a piece that details scientifically these "misc characterizations" in light of recent research. lobbyist desperate to preserve their paycheck and privilege at the cost of life on earth.
Mimi Miller via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This publication is ran by peri's defense attys it's the machine they use to spread lies
annie S via Texas Tribune on Facebook
There is a reason other states have stopped and banned fracking. But I am sure we will be sold out by politicians to highest bidder.
Ted McKnight via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texas Tribune, please explain. Just what is a poorly 'built' gas well?
Mimi Miller via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Some one wrote TT=Texas Trash the koch eric pharma 1% dupont, halliburton monsanto they are all huge players. Insurance, banks, pay day loans, no $$ to educate the people as Texas is corporate state
Jim Malewitz
Hi, Ted.
Thanks for the comment. An example of poorly built natural gas well would be one with cracks in its casing or cementing. That's the issue researchers suspect led to the well-publicized case of groundwater contamination in Parker County: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/09/15/drillers-not-fracking-tied-tainted-water/
Sam Davis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No permits required, a bigger idiot than Jerry Patterson (George Pee Bush) taking over the office, and a GOP-controlled government that puts business ahead of individuals. A recipe for disaster. Can't wait to see how this is Obama's fault when things go wrong.
Anna LaTouche
I live in Denton and voted for this ban.
I also owned multiple properties in Arlington where we signed multiple gas leases a few years ago. The money from the inital lease was somewhat nice, but I felt like I was being bought off. Six months later they had a well drill site accross the street from us. It was a mess. It was not worth the money they gave us. The construction made the street corner very dangerous and caused car accidents.
I have lived in Denton for 3 years now. This is not a complete drilling ban. This is simply a frack ban within the corporate city limits of Denton. I wish it was a complete ban. My friends and neighbors have a gas well in Denton just beyond their back yard. It makes them sick to the point of vomiting anytime they go out back to take out the trash. This is a well that is established and actively pumping. It is not about it being an eyesore, or earthquakes, it's about the fact that it is making people sick.
The fracking ban is only the first steps the citizens of Denton are taking towards making Denton a safe and healthy place to live. Gas wells within the city limits are bad for human and animal health.
As a native Texan and Denton resident; to think Texas businessmen are more concerned with profits than the wellbeing, health and safety of its people and residents is discerning and appalling. Not everything is about the bottom line. There is no such thing as "responsible" drilling (or fracking) within the city limits of any town where humans reside in close proximity.
Anna LaTouche
And yes, we have had minor earthquakes in Denton from fracking... shook up a friend of mine's house enough to knock pictures off the wall and break the glass out of them.
Marc McCord
Is TT now running away from the truth? My last post about well casing failures never appeared.
The fact is that casing pipe comes from China and its quality is suspect, at best, to downright sub par at worst. Cornell Professor of Fracture Mechanics Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, who worked for over 20 years as a Schlumberger geological engineer and who understands this issue as well or better than any person alive, states that 5% of well casings fail immediately, that 50% will fail within 15 years and that all will eventually fail leading to soil and groundwater contamination.
The "cement" used in wells is not concrete - it is a grout, and it is very susceptible to failure. additionally, there is no way for a driller to know who well compacted and fully isolating his cement job is because it all happens underground where nobody can see or measure it. The same is true with casing pipe failures - there is no way to monitor that stuff until one blows out, at which time it is too late to do anything about it.
TT is attempting to whitewash these issues because they hae an apparent agenda to promote frac'ing in the best possible light, and by "frac'ing" I mean the entire process from well pad preparation through completion, production and abandonment. The truth, however, it harder to hide than it used to be as evidenced by all the comments from people who know when they are being fed a line of bs.
Marc McCord
Anna, I hate to be the bearer of bad news because I agree with everything you stated, but the citizens of Denton are directly responsible for having drilling near their homes, schools, daycare centers, nursing homes, hospitals, churches and everywhere else because the citizens of Denton elected the City Council Members who approved drilling permits and appointed your P&Z Board that recommends approval to your City Council.
While your new frac'ing ban may not technically be a drilling ban it is a de facto drilling ban because nobody is going to drill if they cannot frac. Without frac'ing there would be no chance of having a productive well. Drilling and frac'ing a well costs about $5-7 Million, and they are already losing money even with frac'ing, so they surely are not going to drill if they cannot frac.
As to the air emissions problems, and other environmental concerns, there is absolutely nothing you can do about that now other than move away. Drilling is a legal activity under state law and drilling permits were legally issued by your city government. Those existing wells cannot be shut down and forced out of business. That would one lawsuit you would definitely lose in any court.
Your major pathway going forward is to replace every member of your existing City Council with new members that will vote with citizens instead of with corporations that do not reside in Denton, and then get them to replace every member of your P&Z Board with new members that will also place the quality of life issues ahead of drilling companies' interests. You already have a pretty good drilling ordinance, though it could be better (more like the one we passed in Dallas), but if you don't have a P&Z Board and City Council that will enforce the ordinance, then you have nothing.
It is too late to complain about what has already happened. That was why we sought to prevent it from ever getting started in Dallas. We knew that once the door was opened it would be impossible to close it again.
Doris Maldonado via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I just hope big money doesn't win out, we have so much natural gas, that we don't need earth quakes like Like our neighbor !!!
Bob Horton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"Mischaracterized oilfield technique"? Hey, Texas Trib! Your roots are showing!