Fracking Potential Moving Past Obstacles

story first appeared on usatoday.com

Political obstacles to oil and gas production are starting to fall away at the state and local levels as voters, elected officials and courts jump on the energy boom bandwagon.

Voters are rewarding local politicians who support production. Ballot measures are distributing potential tax windfalls broadly. And most state legislatures are focused on managing the economic and environmental consequences of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, so the drilling boom can speed up rather than slow down.

The trend is crucial to the nation's energy future because oil and gas production is regulated and taxed almost entirely by state and local governments. The federal government's role is largely advisory, except on federal lands and on pipelines.

Most states were caught off guard when fracking turned Pennsylvania into a major natural gas producer in 2009. Fracking could produce oil or gas in as many as 36 states. Result: The USA will become the world's No. 1 producer of natural gas in 2015 and oil in 2017, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia, respectively, predicts the International Energy Agency.

Clearing the way:

Elections. Pro-drilling candidates are winning at the local level, including a sweep in southern New York. It is a hot issue, according to Broome County executive Debbie Preston, who won re-election Nov. 6. She's creating a department to help drillers. The state now has a moratorium on fracking.

Pipelines. The industry is winning approval to build pipelines. Williams Partners. the largest pipeline company, got a thumbs-up Nov. 7 to expand one pipeline and has applied to build another to move natural gas to Boston and New York City.

Even the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada looks more likely. Pro-pipeline Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, winner in North Dakota's U.S. Senate race, predicts federal approval early next year.

Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer Kate Sinding says loopholes in federal law make it hard to stop fracking.

Drillers May Be Allowed to Drill Before Disclosing Chemicals

Story first appeared in Bloomberg.

Natural-gas companies drilling on U.S. land would be permitted to wait until after hydraulic fracturing is completed to disclose what chemicals they used, under a draft rule being considered by the U.S. Interior Department.

A version in February required companies to file a complete chemical makeup at least 30 days before work began, something energy trade groups, including Washington-based American Exploration and Production Council, complained about. They said it could slow energy production on federal lands.

The President has pledged to increase U.S. natural gas production in a way that doesn’t hurt the environment. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, releases gas trapped in shale rock by injecting water, sand and chemicals thousands of feet underground. It’s used for almost every new natural-gas well drilled in the U.S. There is a concern that fracking could contaminate ground water reservoirs, and it is imperative that Fracking Expert Witnesses are on hand to make sure everything is being handled properly to avoid problems.

Requiring disclosure of chemicals would only be required after the fracturing operation has taken place, according to the draft, obtained by Bloomberg News.

The Washington-based Environmental Working Group said in February that some of the chemicals already disclosed by the companies are known to cause cancer or reproductive harm.

The Presidential administration plans to post the fracking information on a public website, possibly on FracFocus.org, according to the draft. FracFocus is managed by the Ground Water Protection Council and Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

API Guidelines

Draft rules are being developed with input from the public and industry, according to an administration official familiar with the rule’s development who declined to be identified because he isn’t authorized to discuss a matter still under development.

The rule, which also includes standards for well construction, is consistent with guidelines for well construction and integrity established by the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the industry, according to the draft.

In the draft, the Interior Department said it doesn’t expect the additional requirements to slow approval of drilling permits.

While the president has praised natural-gas production as a source of hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next decade, critics in the industry say the regulations may be a first step toward broader federal oversight of fracking.

About a fifth of U.S. production occurs on U.S. government land, primarily in western states such as Colorado and Wyoming. With the rise in natural gas drilling, the interest in Workers Compensation Insurance has risen at an exponential level. Natural gas companies argue regulating the practice should be left to state authorities who are more familiar with the local geology.

States are effectively requiring disclosure, without discouraging investment. FracFocus, which is working very effectively, is an example of this and is being adapted by several states.

An Arkansas Hosting Company reports that the amount of hosting requests for sites against fracking has risen drastically.


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Natural Gas Drilling Causes Quakes in Ohio

Story first appeared in The Detroit News.

Columbus, Ohio— A dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were almost certainly induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater into the earth, state regulators said Friday as they announced a series of tough new rules for drillers.

Among the new regulations: Well operators must submit more comprehensive geological data when requesting a drill site, and the chemical makeup of all drilling wastewater must be tracked electronically.

The state Department of Natural Resources announced the tough new brine injection regulations because of the report's findings on the well in Youngstown, which it said were based on "a number of coincidental circumstances."

For one, investigators said, the well began operations just three months ahead of the first quake.  If a Natural Gas Expert Witness had been involved, there is the possibility of having avoided these issues.

They also noted that the seismic activity was clustered around the well bore, and reported that a fault has since been identified in the Precambrian basement rock where water was being injected.

Northeastern Ohio and large parts of adjacent states sit atop the Marcellus Shale geological formation, which contains vast reserves of natural gas that energy companies are rushing to drill using a process known as hydraulic fracturing or "fracking".  A Fracking Expert Witness should always be called to be involved in such projects.

That process involves freeing the gas by injecting water into the earth, but that water needs to be disposed of when companies are done with it. Municipal water treatment plants aren't designed to remove some of the contaminants found in the wastewater, including radioactive elements. A common practice is to re-inject it into the ground, a practice banned in some states.

Past earthquakes have been linked to energy exploration and production, including from injections of enormous amounts of drilling wastewater or injections of water for geothermal power, experts said.

They point to recent earthquakes in the magnitude 3 and 4 range — not big enough to cause much damage, but big enough to be felt — in Arkansas, Texas, California, England, Germany and Switzerland. And in the 1960s, two Denver quakes in the 5.0 range were traced to deep injection of wastewater.

The improper placement of the Youngstown well stemmed in part from inadequate geological data being available to regulators, the Ohio report states. New rules would require a complete roll of geophysical logs to be submitted to the state.

Requiring well operators to submit more comprehensive geologic data is just one of the added regulations the department will either impose immediately or pursue through legislative or rule changes.

Among other changes:

— Future injection into Precambrian rock will be banned, and existing wells penetrating the formation will be plugged.

— State-of-the-art pressure and volume monitoring will be required, including automatic shut-off systems.

— Electronic tracking systems will be required that identify the makeup of all drilling wastewater fluids entering the state.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave Ohio regulatory authority over its deep well injection program in 1983, deeming that its state regulations met or exceeded federal standards. The new regulations would be added to those existing rules.