A Short History of Hydraulic Fracturing

A recent article in The Economist credited the technological developments of hydraulic fracturing as one of the key reasons for the recent boom in the shale gas industry.

Without hydraulic fracturing, the article says, these vast resources – which exist not only in the US but also around the world – would remain untapped.

Though the technology for hydraulic fracturing (also known as “fracking”) has only recently come into the limelight, the process has been around for nearly 100 years.

In the early 20th Century, fracking was used in the United States at the Mt. Airy Quarry where it was used to separate grantite blocks from bedrock. The first commercial use for fracking came in 1949, but the process was refined over a period of nearly 40 years. With the help of geologists, engineers and scientists, fracking became an ideal way to bring new life to old wells by 1988, and today fracking is one of the leading technological advances in the oil and gas industry.

With hundreds of thousands of wells currently in operation around the world, fracking is opening up a whole new world of energy resources. Three years ago, an estimated 4,185 shale gas wells were operational in the US alone – and that number has grown exponentially since.

Thanks to these innovations in hydraulic fracturing, shale gas has been called “the next energy game changer” by The Globe and Mail and has been deemed the new “sexy” energy resource by The Financial Times.

Fracking has indeed paved the way for an abundant future alternative energy source.

SOURCES:
The Economist: “Oil Companies Dash For Gas”
“Hydraulic Fracturing”
“Shale Gas”
Energy In-Depth: “History of Hydraulic Fracturing”
Financial Times: “Forget Oil, Shale Gas Just Gets Sexier”
The Globe And Mail: “Shale: The Next Energy Game Changer”