Natural gas is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy, rising to the occasion as an alternative to other fossil fuels such as coal because it burns cleaner. As the oil reserves in many parts of the world are being depleted, the availability of a viable alternative such as natural gas is becoming increasingly important. So too is the lure of the future possibility of energy independence for countries both developed and developing.
In the last decade, oil and natural gas development have rapidly expanded in the United States, fundamentally reshaping domestic energy production. It is abundant both within the United States and around the world. Currently, natural gas provides 22% of the U. S. energy demands. It also emits less than half of the greenhouse gas as other fossil fuels when burned and is more affordable, at a fraction of the cost of oil (Benincasa, 2011). It also emits less than half of the greenhouse gas as other fossil fuels when burned and is more affordable, at a fraction of the cost of oil (Benincasa, 2011). Consequently, replacing oil and coal with natural gas would significantly reduce the human contribution to global warming. By 2020, the United States is predicted to be a net exporter of natural gas and to produce more crude oil than Saudi Arabia (Conti, 2013). How is all of this possible? By drilling long horizontal wells thousands of feet below the surface and fracturing the rock with large volumes of water-based fluid, energy companies are now able to extract substantial amounts of oil and gas from shale. This process is known as hydraulic fracturing.
Geologic formations may contain large quantities of oil or gas, but have a poor flow rate due to the permeability, or from dama...
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...ave yet to reach an agreement on fracking. In January, the EU elected to not pursue regulatory legislation at the international level.
This reshuffling of the global economy will resultfrom the spread of America’s hydraulic frackingknow-how and innovation, benefiting countriesworldwide.
For the past three years, the United States has been the world's fastest-growing hydrocarbon producer, and the trend is not likely to stop anytime soon. U.S. natural gas production has risen by 25 percent since 2010, and the only reason it has temporarily stalled is that investments are required to facilitate further growth. Having already outstripped Russia as the world's largest gas producer, by the end of the decade, the United States will become one of the world's largest gas exporters, fundamentally changing pricing and trade patterns in global energy markets. (Morse, 2014)
The United States has an immense amount of proven natural gas reserves that could become a major source for the nation's energy future (1). The mining of the natural gas resources have become feasible and cheaper due to the advancement of hydraulic fracturing technologies which have increased the amount the extraction and enabled “greater access to gas in shale formations” (2). Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking of shale formations has positive benefits that includes economic growth and the natural gas extracted is cleaner than coal and oil, however it has caused serious environmental problems and possibly could be the cause of recent seismic activity in areas where fracking operations exist (3).
One benefit of hydrofracking is that it creates job in the current economic slump that America is in. The increase of hydraulic fracturing in the United States directly benefits the citizens, with the number of employees i...
The United States relies on imports for about forty percent of its crude oil, which is the lowest rate of dependency since 1991 according to the U.S Energy Information Administration. Today our country is trying to keep on track in becoming less and less dependent. When it comes to the topic of the future ways the United States will get its fuel, most of us readily agree that the United States should become more independent by using natural gas that is already here on our land. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of the consequences drilling for natural gas brings. Whereas some are convinced drilling is safe, others maintain that it is actually in fact dangerous. Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", the terms for drilling for natural gas, is dangerous to our public health and to the environment because of the water contamination it causes. Therefore, it is not something that should become a project for alternative fuel used by the United States.
The United States spends billions of dollars on importing oil. This is represented as almost two-thirds of the country’s entire annual trade deficit. Now that there is more access to gas deposits, there is no need to rely on other countries around the world for fossil fuels. America can instead rely on their own resources to provide energy for the residents. America is already the world's largest producer of natural gas thanks to shell drilling and the country's sits on 2 of the world's largest gas fields gas production has soared 20 percent in five years in the United States now should have enough gas to last generations soon the nation will begin exporting gas and unimaginable possibility just a few years ago when energy supplies look set to run out in the construction of gas importing facilities was considered a matter of national urgency (Zuckerman, G.,
Natural gas extraction and consumption has risen over the past thirty years. Also known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a tremendous amount of uproar is being made in the environmental and political communities. Natural gas use is a great source of energy worldwide, only in America have we had a gold rush affect when it comes to extraction. Natural gas provides less dependence on foreign oil, less need for coal plants, and a more affordable energy source worldwide. There are many advantages to using natural gas but the way in which it is being extracted has caused many people to become sick. The detrimental environmental impacts caused by hydraulic fracturing continue to rise. Not to mention the political pull on big corporations and water quality standards. Currently in the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and the Barnett shale in Texas, the air and water quality have diminished over the past years since drilling sites ran rampant. Natural gas is natural in terms of how it came to be, but not natural in how they extract it and the problems it is causing everyone involved. To make aware the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, environmental impacts, water quality and air emissions, must be considered.
Throughout the past three decades, energy has been a perennial issue in United States politics, economics, and media. The main concern surrounding this topic is the idea of energy independence and how the United States should proceed into the future. Energy independence relates to the goal of reducing United States dependence on importing foreign oil and other foreign energy sources. This desire aims to maintain energy dependence domestically so the United States can avoid reliance on any unstable countries and be detached from global energy supply distribution. It is currently being speculated that the United States might not be too far off from this goal. America’s dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year since 2007. In 2010, the U.S. imported less than 50 percent of the oil the country consumed -- the first time that’s happened in 13 years -- and the trend continued in 2011 (Zhang.) Experts credit new technology as the reason the United States is within several years of again becoming the biggest oil producer in the world, and perhaps two decades away from full energy independence. Hydraulic fracturing, fracking, is the “lead” technology in this technological revolution. Fracking is an economically more feasible way of drilling for oil or gas in harder to reach geological formation. Within the past decade or so, combining hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling has opened up shale deposits across the country. It has brought large-scale natural gas drilling to new regions that may not have had accessible deposits in the past. These areas have greatly benefited from the addition of this industry to their local economies. Certain are...
The United States has become one of the leading producers of natural gas in the world, and now is an exporter of natural gas as well. As natural gas imports increase, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, ?Expects the United States to
In the long, increased amounts of renewable energies are more likely to encourage the use of natural gas as a complementary source of power. Natural gas plants have the operational flexibility to vary their production rapidly, so this will allow them to be able to provide more reliability to the electric power system as it transitions to greater shares of renewable generation.
Firstly, according to David Malakoff’s article The Gas Surge, if natural gas were used as an alternative to oil and coal, the U.S would decrease its dependency on foreign oil, which could potentially calm the social conflicts in the Middle East as well as provide a domestic and cheaper energy source. Furthermore, According to Nicolas Loris’s article, the U.S would be a top exporter of natural gas and a mecca of opportunity for domestic and international companies to create industry in the United States, which would lead to more economic success and more jobs. Loris also states, “the abundance of shale gas brings the possibility of low, stable prices” which can assuage the current and constant rising of other forms of
Heinberg, Richard. “America’s Natural Gas Revolution Isn’t All it’s ‘Fracked’ Up to Be.” Christian Science Monitor. 23 Oct. 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
“In 1821 decades before the first oil well was drilled, commercial shale gas was extracted in Fredonia, New York”(Sovacool 250). The availability of natural gas and its relatively clean properties has allowed the expansion of natural gas extraction. By the year 2005, the extraction of shale gas had expanded with the discovery of hydraulic fracturing. In the United States alone it has led to an enormous growth in the oil industry and this technology has been adopted by many other countries around the world including Iran, Canada, and Europe. As a result, the country is less dependent on foreign countries to meet the growing demand for natural gas, and it has improved the country’s economy while producing less carbon emissions into the atmosphere. But what is hydraulic fracturing?
At some point in everyone’s lives, we are affected by the rising gas prices in today’s economy. Natural gas is not a renewable resource, since there is a fixed amount of it trapped in the Earth. However, many people carry the misconception that there is a very limited amount of natural gas, and that we may use all of it up. This isn’t true. The gas shortages of the 1970's were prompted by the government’s lack of faith in the industry’s ability to discover and develop new reserves, not by lack of gas supply. The unfortunate impression left by the shortages of gas in the 1970's caused the people to believe that there was a small amount of gas left. On the contrary, the gas resource base is vast, and probably even larger than currently estimated. People are often confused by the difference in "proved reserves", those that could be economically produced with the current technology, and the total natural gas resource base.
The number of wells fracked grew significantly, reached 3000 wells per month by the mid 1950s. During the 1970s, there was a huge proliferation of massive hydraulic fracturing, resulted in an enormous number of wells that were stimulated by fracking. By the late 1970s, the process was widely used all different countries and religions, including Canada, Germany, Netherlands and England. It was not until 1999 that scientists found a new method to apply high pressure fluids to rubblize hard-rock formations and extract oil and gas trapped inside. Also, with the invention and application of horizontal drilling to fracking, it became possible to extract larger amounts of oil and natural gas from fracking shales. This absolutely has brought a revolution for the oil and gas industry of the U.S and changed the U.S energy picture from scarcity to abundance. Producers and drillers are now able to exploit a huge amount of natural gas and oil that were locked away in shells and hard rock formations previously. According to many credible reports, about 90 percent of today’s producing wells are stimulated by fracking; up to 35 percent of U.S natural gas production is from shale gas, compares with only 2 percent ten
There are two theories as to the cause to the soaring gas prices. The newspaper articles and the press seem to be connecting the problems to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cutting its crude oil production by roughly 8 percent last spring. This statement is true but there is good reason behind OPEC's decision to decrease production. This reason ties into the second opinion as to the cause of rising gas prices. The thinking is the slowing in production that is directly connected to the changing industry and technological
In erstwhile decades, the economic practice of oil production has perennially been subjugated to the Middle East. However, the rise of domestic production of crude oil and natural gas from shale in the United States has culminated in the passing of Saudi Arabia in terms of oil production. This economic milestone is owed in due part to a relatively-recent implementation of hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as “fracking.” According to Aaron Herridge of Shale Gas España, hydraulic fracturing is “…an effective method of extracting natural gas (and oil) from natural shale formations.” In the process, a well cased in steel is injected with millions of pounds of “fracture fluid,” a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals, and the resulting pressure compels shale rock to create fissures, allowing for natural gas to be pumped back to the surface, along with fracture fluids. In fact, the chemicals in fracture fluid are the catalysts for environmental ramifications. When coinciding with oil spills and dangerous natural compounds, the negatives outweigh the positives. Despite hydraulic fracturing’s auspicious impact upon the U.S.’s production of oil, it poses as a significant threat to the health of the environment; through the proliferation of fractured wells, the use of dangerous chemicals, and high numbers of oil spills, water contamination, land damage, and air pollution have resulted.