'Natural Gas' installations - aerial views. The reality.

Have you ever wondered just what so called 'natural' gas / fracking operations might look like from the air?

Click here to see the reality :http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.photos.php

We feel that image number 14 ( btm left of the page ) might make a really nice desktop image / screensaver.

WATER - Just imagine..................

It is sometimes difficult to envisage the sheer volumes of water that will be transported, contaminated and then either laid to evaporate onto the surrounding countryside or re-injected back into the frack 'hole' after each frack operation. In 'Blackpool' the operation there deployed and spoilt over 2 Billion litres. Hard to imagine is it not. If that is hard to imagine, try this for size:https://twitter.com/sandyd68/status/382762311187824640/photo/1

That is correct. 

'If fracking is allowed in New York State, the wastewater generated is equal to the water volume cascading over Niagara Falls for 35 straight hours. So, imagine standing in front of Niagara Falls for 35 hours. Now imagine that all the cascading water you see is radioactive and full of toxic chemicals, and your job is to figure out where to put it so that it won't come in contact with any person or any other body or water or the soil or the air. FOREVER.'

Sandra Steingraber Phd.

Fracking in UK - significant risks to livestock and food chain.

Today we break our rule ( hey, we make the rules around here!! ) and feature a report in today's Independent (The) newspaper regarding conclusive research carried out by Cornell University's Professor Robert Oswald relating to serious and significant risks to UK livestock and therefore the food chain based on findings in six US states.

The Independent - Tuesday, 17th September 2013

'Fracking sparks food safety concern as expert warns of serious risk to livestock'

"Professor Robert Oswald says his findings of deaths and deformities in American livestock are so alarming that Britain should halt the practice 'until its impact is fully assessed."

"Fracking for gas and oil in the British countryside poses such a significant risk to livestock that a moratorium should be imposed on the industry until its impact on food safety can be assessed, a leading researcher has warned."

Read the report by clicking this link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/fracking-sparks-food-safety-concern-as-expert-warns-of-serious-risk-to-livestock-8822746.html?printService=print


Editors note: 

Please refer to our recent article gving specific details of the type and amount of chemicals typically deployed in fracking - and be apalled.

Note also, our earlier report where we mention the concern expressed by the French Agriculture Minister relating to the possible effect upon the food chain.

US - Draft FRAC Act before Congress.

Today we read of a draft FRAC Act currently before Congress seeking to................

a. Require disclosure of the chemical constituents used in the fracturing process, but not the proprietary formula.

b. Repeal a provision added ( by the Bush Administration ) to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempting the industry from complying with the Safe Drinking Water Act ( SWDA), one of America's landmark environmental and public health statutes.

We wish them well and wonder if a similar disclosure clause might be introduced in mainland Europe. Ed.

Read the full report here: http://degette.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&id=1056:degette-hinchey-and-polis-introduce-frac-act-to-ensure-safe-drilling&catid=76:press-releases-&Itemid=227

French anti-fracking law faces uncertain future....................

Hydraulic fracturing is banned in France - for now. Read here how the law (loi Jacob - July 2011) may face an uncertain future and how we may all soon be back at the barricades ( click the link ) : http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20130913-gaslands-director-toursfrance-anti-fracking-law-faces-uncertain-future

A primer on the rapid decline in production of fracked oil - and gas.

" Back to the question of whether hydraulic fracturing could help export energy from the US. Sounds fine except for the small matter of  - depletion.

Fracked wells age very quickly. The initial production is very high and so is the rate of depletion. The point is, a newly fracked well may produce 1,000 barrels per day, but this falls by sixty per cent the next year, thirty five by the third and fifteen per cent by the fourth. Oil/gas companies should replace forty to forty five percent of the current production each year to maintain/increase production. For now at least, the number of wells and cost of production can keep pace with profits because of the higher oil prices. But what happens when the price comes down? The depletion rates will make the wells non-viable and the search for new supplies will continue elsewhere. Roughly, the US ( for example ) will need more than 9,000 wells at more than $50 billion to counterbalance the declines.

The number of operating wells in the US has been increasing rapidly while the corresponding productivity ( considering all the wells in the US ) has declined. There are about 9,000 wells in North Dakota ( analysts expect the number to go up to 50,000 by 2030 ). The state produced more than 800,000 barrels of oil per day in May, a new record. This averages 89 b/d from each well in N.Dakota, hence the need to constantly add new wells in order to maintain a sustainable level of output. The parallel implication for fracked gas is clear. Ed.

Also, in the case of Bakken, the wells are cheaper compared to the deepwater offshore wells but cost three times those of conventional wells. This is because the wells must be drilled vertically for a distance of nearly two miles, then angled to hroizontal like the branches of a tree to more than three miles......................."

Thank you for this piece to our contributor 'Bob'. Ed. 

Read the full article by clicking the link below....................

http://www.oil-price.net/en/articles/shale-high-depletion-rates-in-bakken.php

Bakken's high depletion rates means more drilling, more often. Shale: High depletion rates in Bakken By STEVE AUSTIN for OIL-PRICE.NET, 2013/09/04 If you can, you could term it delusion, the theory that Shale gas is the answer to all problems in terms of energy. Just extract the gas, ship it across the pipeline and export the excess, or so goes the popular theory (boom. How easy!). Let's call this 'Sale for Energy Security Theory' or SEST) If you believe in SEST, here's a simple task for you: Take a towel or cloth soaked in water. Wring it. Note the amount of water that comes out. Now, wring it again. Okay, once more. How many drops of water did you get in the third time? Two, three? This is precisely what's happening in the Bakken. Imagine that there aren't buckets of oil underneath the Bakken but towels soaked with oil. And it is only recently that we figured out the technique called "fracking": how to wring a towel full of oil. The first time oil companies twist the towel, a stream of oil comes dripping out. Success! Then second time around, surprise: just a few drops, and the third time and subsequent times... nothing. This is what high depletion rates mean and this is what is happening.

Bakken's high depletion rates means more drilling, more often. And this is precisely what will happen with fracked gas. More derricks, more trucks, more noise, more airborne methane and more toxic chemicals pumped into the ground.

Shale: High depletion rates in Bakken By STEVE AUSTIN for OIL-PRICE.NET, 2013/09/04

If you can, you could term it delusion, the theory that Shale gas is the answer to all problems in terms of energy. Just extract the gas, ship it across the pipeline and export the excess, or so goes the popular theory (boom. How easy!). Let's call this 'Sale for Energy Security Theory' or SEST)
If you believe in SEST, here's a simple task for you: Take a towel or cloth soaked in water. Wring it. Note the amount of water that comes out. Now, wring it again. Okay, once more. How many drops of water did you get in the third time? Two, three? This is precisely what's happening in the Bakken. Imagine that there aren't buckets of oil underneath the Bakken but towels soaked with oil. And it is only recently that we figured out the technique called "fracking": how to wring a towel full of oil. The first time oil companies twist the towel, a stream of oil comes dripping out. Success! Then second time around, surprise: just a few drops, and the third time and subsequent times... nothing. This is what high depletion rates mean and this is what is happening.

Energy giants feeling threatened by renewables.

We read today how European energy giants such as GDF Suez, Enal, Gas Terra Dutch and others are feeling threatened by the steady expansion of renewable sources including wind and solar and how they have been appealing to the EU to severely limit its support. Of course they have. They represent dirty 'traditional' sources for which the future is far from unclear.

Read the report here: http://alalumieredunouveaumonde.blogspot.fr/ . 

Or here in English: http://www.photon.info/photon_news_detail_en.photon?id=80471

Depressing is it not?