Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Oil Supplies & Environment

By Roger Frost


Oil has typically been pumped for the ground for centuries and the earliest wells were drilled in China as early as 347 AD. These wells reached a depth of around 800 feet and were drilled using bamboo poles.

It was the ability to distill kerosene from "rock oil" was developed in the mid 1800's that began the evolution of oil drilling and refining. In the 1950's oil replaced coal as the foremost fuel in use in North America.

Prior to the 1920's oil was typically located by finding oil seeps, areas of paraffin dirt or drilling beside known oil fields. Later the oil companies to rely on basic science to locate potential oil and gas fields. Tools used by oil and gas explorers were fairly basic and depended on fundamental variables in the earth's physical condition: gravity change, magnetic field change, time change, and electrical resistance.

Fracking is a slang term for hydraulic fracturing. Fracking refers to the procedure of creating fractures in rocks and rock formations by injecting fluid into cracks to force them further open. The larger fissures allow more oil and gas to flow out of the formation and into the wellbore, from where it can be extracted.

Fracturing can be traced to the 1860s, when liquid, and later, solidified, nitroglycerin was used to stimulate shallow, hard rock wells in Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Although extremely hazardous, and often used illegally, nitroglycerin was spectacularly successful for oil well shooting. The object of shooting a well was to break up, or turn into rubble, the oil-bearing formation to increase both initial flow and ultimate recovery of oil. This same fracturing principle was soon applied with equal effectiveness to water and gas wells.

Green Peace as well as other environmental organizations are against "Fracking" until more information is available. Three exploratory fracking wells were closed after two minor earthquakes. Although the quakes didn't cause any real damage, they shook the ground enough for people to notice. Cuadrilla Resources, the company responsible for the shale operations, found that these tremors were probably caused by fracking . They proposed to start monitoring seismic activity to avoid future quakes at fracking sites.

In Canada the Alberta oil sands is probably the biggest known polluter in the world. The current "Harper Government" is allowing this potential harmful process to continue to reap the short term benefits of the oil industries huge investment into this project. The water contamination and huge carbon pollution is an embarrassment to any person with any kind of environmental conscious. While the president of the United States is trying to make a difference in Global warming, Canada is merrily increasing the worlds pollution at an alarming rate.




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