expect the oil companies with their deep pockets and high paid attorneys to challenge this if the folks in Ohio tell them no.

jimmyjackfunk: expect the oil companies with their deep pockets and high paid attorneys to challenge this if the folks in Ohio tell them no.

Of course.

Even the US government confirms a link between fracking and earthquakes.

So, while the experts battle it out in Ohio, they'll just move to friendlier places, like PA, where local governments have been bought and fracking can continue unimpeded.

You're fracked.

It was also fracking that caused the earthquake in Britain. That thing sent a chimney through my 8 year old niece's bedroom and nearly crushed her to death.

FredaDeStilleto: So, while the experts battle it out in Ohio, they'll just move to friendlier places, like PA, where local governments have been bought and fracking can continue unimpeded.

Don't forget Western Colorado. The bastards bought off the politicians and media out here. The rubes swallow the propaganda and vote against their own interests.

All forms of petroleum extraction has an impact.

Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, you better believe it
Drilling in the Persian Gulf, you better believe it
Oil sands extraction in Alberta, damn you better believe it

The vast, like 99.999% of fracks have been uneventful..
My furnace doesn't run on fairy sweat and neither does yours..

... and CNN is using SKYRIM screen shots as nature photos

limeyfellow: It was also fracking that caused the earthquake in Britain. That thing sent a chimney through my 8 year old niece's bedroom and nearly crushed her to death.

There could be as much as 2Trillion USdollars worth of energy under your niece's bedroom.
Something that valuable will cause men to do all sorts of things to get at it.

FTFA: These are disposal wells designed as a "dump" for used fracking fluids / waste.

Typically an injection well pulls at or near vacuum at surface, hence very little pumping power is required (vs. hydraulic fracturing) to get the fluids into the formation. The porous formation here is getting filled up with the fluid, and not fractured (probably porous enough to take it with relative ease). The displaced gasses or other hydrocarbons in the formation are likely produced on site or migrate through the formation to nearby wells where they are produced or flared (artificially lifted by incoming waste). There should be very little change to the shape of a formation in a disposal well, due to the small to negligable pumping forces required at surface. I.e., not earthquake causing.

So in the context of "earthquake causing" not sure why they'd stop these particular wells from operating. Unless they fear the wellbore itself becoming comprimised in an earthquake allowing waste to migrate vertically from one formation to the other... if that is the fear then every single hydrocarbon producing well bore has the same potential for consequences and I don't think they're going to shut all *tho$e* in....

Tectonic plates are always shifting. Friction and plate lock cause pressure to build until part of a land mass gives way to create a major earthquake. Projects like this one actually lubricate the plates to control/lessen the amount of pressure that builds in a particular area. Sooner or later, though, the surrounding land mass will shift as well. It's just a fact. Either way, the process only buys time and typically produces a series of small quakes that ultimately delay or prevent the large ones. In this case, we get oil and relative stability of a land mass that will give way sometime, anyhow. California already uses similar processes plus dynamite to trigger small quakes and prevent larger ones from being more severe.

jimmyjackfunk: expect the oil companies with their deep pockets and high paid attorneys to challenge this if the folks in Ohio tell them no.

What makes you think they'll wait to be told no? I'm sure they've already instructed their lawers to get those well running again.

BurnShrike: You're fracked.

[pppsr.files.wordpress.com image 360x474]

Totally ruined it for male geeks...cant use the name Starbuck as avatar/login anywhere anymore. All the other perv geeks automatically assume your a chick, and it gets pretty pathetic from there.

solokumba: ... and CNN is using SKYRIM screen shots as nature photos

[lh4.googleusercontent.com image 319x301]

That's an actual photo.

Meanwhile, in Canada, we frac probably 200+ times (zones) per day, industry wide. And not once have I ever heard of earthquakes or firewater because of it.

Then again, we laugh at American 'health, safety, and environment' laws and practises.

The industry is as safe as the government requires it to be. Up here we require it. And it doesn't even hurt/slow the economy.

/ busy as farq! Want a job? Want to make 100k? Come on up to Alberta.

"Wake of Quake" would be a good game title.

Tingle007 ,Tectonic plates are always shifting. Friction and plate lock cause pressure to build until part of a land mass gives way to create a major earthquake. Projects like this one actually lubricate the plates to control/lessen the amount of pressure that builds in a particular area. Sooner or later, though, the surrounding land mass will shift as well. It's just a fact. Either way, the process only buys time and typically produces a series of small quakes that ultimately delay or prevent the large ones. In this case, we get oil and relative stability of a land mass that will give way sometime, anyhow. California already uses similar processes plus dynamite to trigger small quakes and prevent larger ones from being more severe.

Are you saying that small earthquakes are a safety feature of fracking, sort of like managed small burns to avoid the big ones?

It isn't a bug, it's a feature!

/My spidey shill alert sense is tingling!

Tingle007: California already uses similar processes plus dynamite to trigger small quakes and prevent larger ones from being more severe.


Q: Can we use a lot of explosives to cause small earthquakes in order to prevent having large ones?

A: No. Even huge amounts of explosive almost never cause even small earthquakes (see previous FAQ), and it would take hundreds and thousands of small earthquakes to equal a large one, even if it could be done. In addition, we wouldn't have any control over the size of the earthquake being created if it worked, since small and large earthquakes all start out in exactly the same way. It's just not physically possible.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/faq/?faqID=89 (new window)

This is specifically and literally, the GOP reaching out of their farking evil castle and destroying the world. In MY state.

Can't you evil shiatbags do anything but fark over the world so your great grandchildren can shiat in solid platinum toilets? farking A.

dforkus: All forms of petroleum extraction has an impact.

Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, you better believe it
Drilling in the Persian Gulf, you better believe it
Oil sands extraction in Alberta, damn you better believe it

The vast, like 99.999% of fracks have been uneventful..
My furnace doesn't run on fairy sweat and neither does yours..

Your furnace doesn't run on shiat they get from fracking either, jackhole.

jimmyjackfunk: expect the oil companies with their deep pockets and high paid attorneys to challenge this if the folks in Ohio tell them no.

Not even a month ago, the energy companies were running ads telling people to call Sherrod Brown's office to tell him they won't stand for his vote for higher energy prices. All but the very dumbest among us knew that this was because Brown was anti-fracking. (new window) Fortunately for the energy companies, dumbest runs deep here.

neongoats: dforkus: All forms of petroleum extraction has an impact.

Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, you better believe it
Drilling in the Persian Gulf, you better believe it
Oil sands extraction in Alberta, damn you better believe it

The vast, like 99.999% of fracks have been uneventful..
My furnace doesn't run on fairy sweat and neither does yours..

Your furnace doesn't run on shiat they get from fracking either, jackhole.

My furnace doesn't run on natural gas?

Heims: neongoats: dforkus: All forms of petroleum extraction has an impact.

Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, you better believe it
Drilling in the Persian Gulf, you better believe it
Oil sands extraction in Alberta, damn you better believe it

The vast, like 99.999% of fracks have been uneventful..
My furnace doesn't run on fairy sweat and neither does yours..

Your furnace doesn't run on shiat they get from fracking either, jackhole.

My furnace doesn't run on natural gas?

Fracking is for both oil and natural gas, however, the US has RIDONCULOUS amounts of lp gas readily available without the need to literally tear open fault lines to get it.

So one would expect they are after oil. The article doesn't specifically say what they were fracking for, but it strikes me as a needlessly expensive way to go about getting natural gas, for which there are much more cost effective, less dangerous ways to get.

neongoats,Your furnace doesn't run on shiat they get from fracking either, jackhole.

I hear you as ranting as an angry old man wearing an eyepatch.

neongoats: Fracking is for both oil and natural gas, however, the US has RIDONCULOUS amounts of lp gas readily available without the need to literally tear open fault lines to get it..

It's not terribly off track to compare that statement with one questioning the use of fertilizer on crops - "why fertilize anything at all, since there's already so much grain grown in this country?" Modern fracking is like the invention of fertilizer. Even semi-informed people don't have much of a clue one exactly what it takes to get hydrocarbons to flow out of the ground, and fewer still know the economics behind it. There are companies that specialize in independent accounting of hydrocarbon reserves, and their job is to remain mostly impartial and certainly to give a conservative estimate on the recoverable reserves given the available data for a particular deposit. Their reports are often used in financial dealings, e.g., securing a loan against future production. Some deposits of natural gas aren't economic unless they're fracked. Such is the business now, you can present to these independent auditors your plans to frac, and they may approve and officially give you those reserves as "proved, recoverable".

Fracking has been done for quite a long time in the US. Disposing of water produced from wells by reinjecting it back into the earth has been done for even longer. It's the type of fracking, and the amount of water injected into the ground, and obviously WHERE the water gets injected that makes a difference.

neongoats: So one would expect they are after oil. The article doesn't specifically say what they were fracking for, but it strikes me as a needlessly expensive way to go about getting natural gas, for which there are much more cost effective, less dangerous ways to get.

The Eagle Ford formation, really hot in South Texas right now, has been fracked for gas and oil, and one more thing. When fracking shale, you understand that the fractures that are opened up are rather small. Oil, even under high temperature and some pressure may not flow in economic volumes. Yet, a few wells are still fracked in the Eagle Ford for oil. Downdip(deeper and toward the coast) Gas will flow from the same set of rocks, mainly because the whole thing has been cooked at a significantly hotter temperature through time. Gas will happily flow through those fractures, and like oil, is often just marginally economic. But there's a spot inbetween... The zone that's only been overcooked just a little. The hydrocarbons in that same formation flow like gas to the wellbore, but is what those in the business call "liquid rich". Otherwise known as "condensate". The stuff often has the color of fresh yellow straw, and sometimes smells like the lighter fluid you would put in your Dad's Zippo lighter. Each barrel might sell for a 5% premium over the set price of oil in the area. Technically, they would be labelled as "gas wells" but in truth they are really oil and gas wells. So, it's a naming convention that may fool some folks. Some so called gas wells may produce far more liquids (oil) than traditional oil wells.

If a farmer went to the local coffee shop and showed off with a gold nugget the size of a bowling ball, how long would it take for the other farmers to start digging up their own fields? it's a gold rush of a different sort.

RobotSpider: SVenus: Some so called gas wells may produce far more liquids (oil) than traditional oil wells.

So it's the shart of the petro-chemical world?

When the oil hits the annulus...