Impacts of Fracking in the United States on Various Industries

The increasing demand for oil has spurred innovation and led to the development of advanced techniques of oil recovery. Hydraulic fracturing is a technique used to stimulate oil and natural gas production. It is used in oil wells where conventional methods of recovery are ineffective. Generally, large amounts of oil and gas are trapped in the reserves due to low permeability or clogging. This is particularly true for tight sands, coal bed methane, and oil shales. In such cases, hydraulic fracturing is employed where fluids (water with additives) and sand (proppants) are injected under tightly controlled pressure conditions to fracture rock formations. This allows trapped oil and gas to freely flow out of the rock pores into the well that can bring them to the surface. This technique was first used in the US in 1947 at Kansas, where approximately 1000 gallons of fluids were pumped into a 2400 feet deep well to improve natural gas production. Due to the high success rate, it was adopted quickly. Hydraulic fracturing along with horizontal drilling is now employed in almost 90% onshore wells in North America.