A Beginners Guide to Fracking & Shale Gas

www.frackture.com
Many of us have heard about fracking, but how many know
what it really is and why it is so different from normal or
conventional gas production?
As Ineos is due to start seismic survey work across the
Yorkshire Wolds this year, it might be a good time to get to
grips with the basics of fracking & shale gas.
Should we be concerned?
Yes – Because Petroleum Exploration & Development
Licences (PEDLs) cover much of East & North Yorkshire &
part of the N. York Moors.
What does the licence allow the industry to do?
Explore for & produce conventional gas & oil, shale gas &
oil and coal bed methane (which also uses fracking)
Will it affect people living here?
Yes - Because shale gas production is an intensive
industry which will affect the lives of everyone living and
working in this area.
License Holders
What is fracking? Courtesy DECC & BGS
“Fracking” is short for hydraulic fracturing. It is a method
used to fracture the rock around a gas well by pumping Why is shale gas different to conventional gas?
water, sand & chemicals into the rock at high pressures. Both are natural gas, but they are found in different types
Why use fracking? of rock.
To extract the shale gas (or oil). Shale gas is natural gas Conventional gas is natural gas found in permeable rocks
trapped in small cavities in a rock called shale and can only where it collects in high points and is trapped by an
be released by fracking. overlying layer of impermeable rock.
Why does the government want shale gas? A conventional well produces gas as soon as it is drilled
To provide a low emissions alternative to coal until and the gas flows freely through the rock to the well.
renewables take over, to replace the dwindling North Sea Fracking is not necessary.
reserves and to provide treasury income.
Where will shale gas be produced?
Large areas of the UK have now been licensed. The three
main areas are the Scottish Lowlands, the Weald Basin
and the largest, the Bowland Shales, is shown below.
Scotland, Wales & Ireland have now banned fracking.

Dark purple has

the best potential
for gas

The map below shows the licences for our Local Area
which covers Howden to Rosedale in the North York
Moors and from Bridlington to Tadcaster.
The colours show the different gas companies.
The purple lines show the approximate limit of the shale
Conventional gas wells flow for up to 40 years. They are
low risk and just a few wells will drain a large gas field.
About 10% of conventional wells are fracked using Low
Volume Fracking (LVF). This uses a small amount of
water & sand to restore the old flagging wells. See page 4

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Shale gas is natural gas trapped in impermeable shale
and the gas cannot flow though the rock to the well.
A new shale gas well will not produce any gas until it has
been fracked using High Volume Fracking (HVF).
Fracking shatters the shale around the well and releases
the gas.
The industry is very intensive, uses large amounts of
materials and produces large amounts of waste.
How is shale gas produced?
A well is drilled vertically down into the shale and then
horizontally through the shale for a mile (1600m) or more
A 40m to 50m high drilling rig is used – See below.
Drilling Rig Working 24/7
The well is lined with one or more a steel tubes
surrounded by a thin layer of cement
The horizontal part of the well is then fracked.
Holes are blasted through the steel tubing and large
volumes of water, chemicals and sand are pumped into
the shale at extremely high pressures.
The pressure is high enough to fracture the rock.
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Thousands of tiny cracks develop, like tree roots,
radiating out from the well into the shale.
The fluids carry the sand into the fractures where it stays
to prop open the cracks.
The high volume fracking (HVF) releases the gas which
flows along the fractures to the well.
Large volumes of contaminated waste fluids are also
produced along with gas.
The photo below shows fracking in operation. There are
20 high pressure pumps, mixers, silos & all the
equipment necessary to frack one production well.
Fracking Operations at the Well Head
Why do shale wells have a short life?
Because only the fractured shale produces any gas and
this is limited to the shale within about 120m of the well.
Each well produces a limited amount of gas and this is
soon depleted. The flow of gas falls rapidly – by about
70% over the first year.
How many wells are needed?
New wells have to be drilled continuously to make up for
this steep drop in gas output.
In practice the horizontal wells are drilled side by side,
about 150 to 200 metres apart, to make a continuous
layer of wells through the shale.
If the shale is thick enough – as it is in the UK - then
several layers of wells would be drilled at different depths
- a bit like a layer cake, with layers of wells stacked one
above the other.
The aim is to produce as much gas as possible at the
lowest cost and this means fracturing the largest amount
of shale from the same well pad.
Thousands of wells will be needed to achieve significant
amounts of gas over the long term.

How much water, sand & waste to frack a single

1600m (About 1 mile) long production well?
Water & Chemicals Injected - 5 million gallons or 1150
tanker loads – or via pipeline or from aquifer.
Sand Used – About 4000 to 8000 tonnes or 200 to 400
truck loads.
Contaminated Waste Produced - About 1.5 to 3.5 million Traffic congestion as trucks queue to deliver & collect
gallons or 350 to 800 tanker loads.
In America, untreated waste is pumped down injection
What do you see at the surface? wells, at high pressure, into underground rock.
Drilling & fracking are done from a well pad. These are This has lead to a significant increase in earthquake
large areas of compacted stone - about 5 acres or 3 activity. The long term pollution risks are unknown.
times the size of a football pitch.
What are the implications & risks of shale gas?
The image below shows the Preston New Road site in There is an inescapable truth about shale gas production.
Lancashire under construction. It can take 40 wells.
If you need a large amount of gas, you must fracture a
Drilling rigs are 40m to 50m high (130 to 165 feet). large amount of shale.
Sledmere monument is 37m high (120ft)
This requires thousands of wells, hundreds of well pads,
pipelines & roads and gas processing installations.

Well Pad in Lancashire under Construction

How will work affect local people?
The pipelines & well pad are constructed first - about 6
months working with large construction machinery.
About 3000 heavy truck journeys plus lighter vehicles.
Noise, disturbance etc.
Drilling & fracking 40 wells (1 mile long) – About 4 to 5
years of continuous 24/7 working. Noise, disruption traffic
congestion etc. Likely to be spread out over longer period.
Water (If trucked in) – 92,000 tanker journeys
Sand & waste trucks - 44,000 to 96,000 truck journeys
What about the waste?
Each well produces a large volume of contaminated
waste. It is a mix of fracking fluids & fluid from the shale.
This is a cocktail of fracking chemicals mixed with mineral
salts which may be harmful, NORM & hydrocarbons such
as benzene, xylene etc which are harmful.
NORM means Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials.
Waste must be taken from site using tankers.
There is no effective plan in place for the treatment of the
large volume of waste from UK production wells.
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This is a large, intensive, industry which will inevitably
industrialise the countryside.
The obvious impacts are the changes to the landscape,
24/7 drilling & fracking, heavy traffic, congestion, noise,
light, gas flaring, environmental & landscape damage etc.
The less obvious risks are to climate change, public
health, safety & the environment, many of which stem from
inappropriate & ineffective UK regulation for shale gas.
For example, US shale gas wells have a 6% chance of
leaking - 6 times higher than a conventional well.
If future UK wells have similar risks, there will be serious
implications for ground water, air quality & climate change.
The Government claims that UK regulation for shale gas is
the best in the world and will control these risks, but this
claim is not supported by the evidence.
What are the risks to sustainable businesses?
Businesses such as agriculture, food & tourism all rely on
the quality of the landscape, the environment and the purity
of the air and water. These will inevitably be degraded.
What is the Risk to the Aquifer? The Government says that we have the best regulation in
The chalk aquifer under the Yorkshire Wolds supplies the world, but does it incorporate the recommendations of
most of the water for East Yorkshire & Hull. It is used for the scientists & engineers in this review?
domestic, industrial & agricultural purposes. The government has never commissioned any risk
The local chalk streams, a valuable fresh water habitat, assessment, nor do they have a programme of research.
depend on the purity of the water. Their decisions are not based on either past or current
Fracking poses risks to the water from contamination with evidence of shale gas & its risks.
chemical or waste spillage & from well failure allowing The current regulation is not designed to control the
gas & fluids to leak into the aquifer. specific risks or scale of shale gas production.
What about Climate Change? The Government has simply adopted the existing
Shale gas was originally justified because it was thought regulation used for conventional gas.
to have the same impact on climate change as No specific changes have been made to accommodate
conventional gas and considerably less than coal. shale gas or fracking.
Recent research in the USA shows that shale gas They do not consider that shale gas production is any
production leaks more than 8 times as much methane different to conventional gas production or that High
into the atmosphere as conventional gas production. Volume Fracking is any different to Low Volume Fracking.
UK regulation is inappropriate, unsafe & unfit for purpose.
What is Low Volume Fracking (LVF)?
Low volume fracking is used to stimulate conventional
wells with falling output. It uses small amounts of water &
sand & lower pressures to fracture the rock within a few
feet of the well – rather like clearing a choked filter.
About 10% of our onshore wells (200) have been fracked
since the 1960s.
This is what the industry mean when they say “they have
been fracking for 60 years”. It’s small scale, applied to a
small number of wells & cannot be compared to HVF.
Where will it begin in this area?
Infra-Red Image - Methane Leak from US well Ineos will begin seismic surveys & drilling for samples in
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas – 87 times more the pink areas in 2018. No planning permissions needed.
potent than carbon dioxide over 20 years – and the effect Access to land can be gained via the courts.
of these high emissions has been to accelerate climate Seismic surveys map the underground geology. Core
change rather than slow it. samples assess if the shale is viable.
The evidence suggests that it would be sensible to stay This is first stage of shale gas production. Followed by
with coal until renewables take over. exploration wells and then full scale production.
The Government considers that the UK’s strict regulation
is adequate to control these methane leaks.
Regulation
The purpose of regulation is to establish an effective set
of rules & laws which will reduce risks to a safe minimum
and provide a means of enforcing these rules.
If shale gas regulation is to be effective, it must take
account of all the known risks & the scale of the industry.
It must be specific to the shale gas industry which has its
own set of risks.
It must be based on evidence, such as risk assessments Liability - Who Pays?
and ongoing research so that it can adapt to new The question of who pays when & if it goes wrong has not
evidence as and when it becomes available. been determined. Will it be insurance or gas companies,
The various regulators must be well organised as one landowners, councils or the government?
single organisation with the skills & experience to make Insurance companies are understandably wary of insuring
informed decisions. fracking related liabilities & have not declared which risks,
It must be independent, well organised, well funded and if any, they will cover when production begins.
able to enforce the regulations. The NFU will not cover farmers for fracking related
These are just a few of the recommendations made by to liabilities if they allow fracking on their land.
the UK government by The Royal Society & The Royal PEDL licences require that only the Government is
Academy of Engineers in 2012. insured against all actions, costs etc.
This information is based on evidence from the USA & UK and industry practices in the USA. Photos are mostly US sites.
“High volume hydraulic fracturing” in horizontal wells, is used for shale gas production. It started commercially in the USA in about
2005. It has never been used in the UK
The quantities of materials, well lengths and layouts are guidelines and intended to show the scale of shale gas production. They are
based on USA practices. Well lengths, number of wells per pad, number of layers etc may all vary.
For more information, evidence & references go to PDFs 1,2 & 3 on the website - www.frackture.com
The author is a qualified independent civil engineer who has spent several years studying hydraulic fracturing and the shale gas
industry. Website – www.frackture.com Contact email - info@frackture.com Information Sheet 2 – IS2 - Revised 13/05/18
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