Fracking

Will it save us from Peak Oil?

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock.

Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the oil or gas inside.

Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well.

The number of horizontal drilling rigs has increased a lot in the recent years

Also, the oil production in the US is growing for the first time in decades.

There are some environmental worries about, for instance, the chemicals injected, whose formula is secret These chemicals, and some gas and oil, could polute the aquifers

The polution by waste water ...

In the old days, you had to be careful not to spill everything with free-flowing oil surging out of the earth under its own gas pressure

An oil well could be yielding oil for several years with little help

That's no longer the case

Fracking isn't easy or cheap

Most fracking wells dry up quickly, very quickly.

After two or three years the production is so low (only a few barrels a day) that you have to drill again somewhere else

Typical decline rate from year 1 to year 2 is 50%

So we'll have to drill again, and again, and again ..

For any natural resource, the low-hanging fruit is picked up first.

The easier and bigger shale formations will be the first ones to be explored.

The cost of shale oil obtained by fracking is already high.

It will be higher as the easier and bigger formations are used up.

We will not run out of oil. We will run out of oil we can afford to burn.

Will Fracking save us from
Peak Oil?

Yes, for a while

But it will be expensive

Oil Price will (and must) be high

Production of individual rigs fall sharply in 2-3 years

There are many environmental concerns

Many thousand of rigs should be drilled

As long as there are shale fields to drill

As long as the price is high