What is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking?
Exploring fracking: how does the process of fracking actually work?
Show transcriptIn this episode of The New Economy’s series exploring fracking we talk about the physical process of fracking: how it can be used to extract oil and gas from underground deposits.
What is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking?
Essentially it is the process of extracting natural gas or oil from underground deposits by injecting huge volumes of liquid into the ground.
Having identified a suitable deposit a shaft will be drilled to the appropriate depth. Smaller horizontal shafts are then dug towards the reservoir.
‘Fracking fluid’, a mix of water, sand and chemicals is then pumped into the rock at enormous pressure.
This process will fracture the rock layer, the sand preventing the gaps from closing while the chemicals kill off bacteria, compress the water and dissolve minerals.
The liquid is then pumped out allowing the gas to flow down the horizontal wells back into the vertical shaft to be collected in storage tanks on the surface.
Once the deposit is exhausted the fracking fluid is pumped into the underground chamber and the shaft is sealed.
Fracking is a technique that has been used commercially for 65 years, although the combination of advances in technology and diminishing conventional reserves has led to a surge in its use.
This is particularly true in the US where the shale revolution has seen most states with frackable reserves starting the process.
However fracking could become a worldwide trend with large quantities of recoverable shale gas found across the world.
Please watch our other videos on fracking’s effects on the energy market and the challenges fracking faces.