Following on from my recent post that covered the effects of oil drilling operations, and after being prompted by Anson Mackay, I’d like to bring ‘fracking’ into the spotlight. Fracking – or hydraulic fracturing – is a method of extracting natural gas inside hard shale rocks. The process consists of drilling down to shatter underlying rocks and injecting into them a high-pressurised fluid (such as water, chemicals and also sand). This creates channels within the rock and enhances the extraction rate and complete recovery of fossil fuels (BBC, 2011).
The reason fracking is relevant here owes to the fact that there have been several small earth tremors recorded in the UK in the last year; and fracking is said to be the perpetrator. After a magnitude 1.5 and 2.2 earthquake struck Blackpool in spring 2011, the shale gas drilling operations where suspended until an investigation was completed. The outcome of this saw the accused energy firm Cuadrilla Resources admitting in a commissioned report that the quakes happened due to an “unusual combination of geology at the well site” and that it was “unlikely to occur again”. Needless to say, many were inclined to distrust the report and protestors from campaign group ‘Frack Off’ were reported to have climbed a drilling rig at Cuadrilla headquarters.
In a likely acceptance of their guilt, Cuadrilla terminated its shale gas drilling tests in June after a magnitude 2.3 tremor struck the Fylde coast in April and then reoccurred in May. This was recently reported by the BBC, which reiterated the ongoing clash between sceptical environmentalists and “hopelessly naïve” energy companies.
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