Introduction

The worldwide concern of the industries involved in the extraction, use and sale of hydrocarbons is latent due to the low levels of existence of the mineral, which leads them to seek a consensus with a society slightly altered by the implementation of unconventional hydraulic fracturing or fracking, as a method of oil and gas extraction.

Article content

• What is the origin of fracking?
• What is Fracking and how is it performed?
• Why the rush to implement fracking?
• Conclusions

What is the origin of fracking?

The beginnings and first implementations of conventional hydraulic fracturing took place in the state of Kansas (USA) in 1947, while unconventional hydraulic fracturing, known for the great worldwide controversies regarding its implementation, although patented for its execution since 1947, was not until the year 2000 when it began to be used in Pennsylvania (also in the USA).

What is Fracking and how is it performed?

Based on the specialized sources consulted in the article 'What is Fracking' by Colombiacheck, Andrés Ángel, scientific advisor of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), said that fracking is a hydrocarbon extraction technique that basically consists of the injection of large volumes of pressurized fluids generating fractures in rocks and thus creating different ways for the migration of hydrocarbons to the surface?

In turn, Óscar Vanegas, petroleum engineer and professor at the Universidad Industrial de Santander, explains that 'fracking' has been used since 1947 as a method of hydrocarbon extraction. In other words, oil has been extracted through hydraulic fracturing in conventional reservoirs for years.

Conventional hydraulic fracturing is not the cause of the debates that currently originate from the implementation of this extraction mechanism. It is the non-conventional extraction that today generates controversy and movements against its implementation, since it is based on the fracturing of the mother rocks where oil and gas originate (non-conventional reservoirs), called shales.

Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is a non-conventional mechanism to obtain hydrocarbons. This, for example, differs from the conventional method of extraction in which a large gas pocket is drilled, which once penetrated releases the fuel to the surface, consequent to the pressure difference, while fracking in its implementation focuses on the extraction of small concentrations of dispersed hydrocarbons.

The procedure to obtain shale gas, also known as Shale Gas, focuses on reaching subway zones where the gas is dispersed. In order to reach these zones, a drilling must be carried out vertically into the earth's crust, with a length of approximately four to five kilometers to reach the required depth.

When this depth is reached, drilling is done horizontally to cover as much of the rock as possible. The next step is to pump water with dissolved chemicals at high pressure through the borehole, which helps fracturing the rock, ends in gas seepage and brings the fossil fuel to the surface mixed with water.

Why the rush to implement fracking?

The notorious shortage in the energy and oil industry is one of the reasons why fracking and its implementation for the generation of hydrocarbons has been considered in many countries in Latin America and the world, since oil and natural gas reserves are less year after year, even with the discovery of new deposits.

Conclusions

• The implementation of fracking has been one of the most controversial industrial proposals in recent years.
• Shortages in the oil and energy industry lead to the implementation of non-conventional extraction mechanisms.
• Hydraulic fracturing has been used since the 19th century.
• The United States was the pioneer in the implementation of hydraulic fracturing as a method of hydrocarbon extraction.