The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

edible frac stuff

nice marketing work by the Halliburton and BH folk. Unfortunately, the stuff that they claim is used in making beer and ice-cream is either stuff they've been using already (e.g. guar) or it's stuff i wouldn't want to eat (e.g. mineral oil). And as the environmental guy made clear, they will always find something objectionable about extracting oil or gas.

i think all of the incidents of water contamination associated with fracking have all been tied to surface contamination: e.g. loss of containment in storage or transportation containers and retension ponds. The only way to contaminate aquifers from the wells which penetrate the aquifers is to have a bad cement job and that problem wouldnt be caused by fracking. Fracking chemicals could leak up a bad cement job but placing blame on fracking for such a problem is illogical.

Things like biocides are, by definition, toxic so unless the fracking companies do without the biocide, then some fracking chemicals will continue to be toxic. Making a completely sterile and pH and Eh adjusted fracking fluid which could, in principle, eliminate the need for biocides is impractical (IMO).

Couple other errors or misleading points (not necessarily from the WSJ): 1. HAL does appear to be disclosing compositional info on their fracking fluids, c.f. http://www.halliburton.com/public/projects/pubsdata/Hydraulic_Fracturing/index.html 2. i suspect the maltodextrin is used for increasing the density of the frac fluid for the purpose of better supporting the proppant. If so, then i doubt that it would be replacing any toxic chemicals.

Overall, i don't think you'll hear a whole lot of wailing and knashing of teeth from the bigger gas producers or service companies in response to the environmentalists' protestations over shale gas exploitation. The result will be increased costs for producing the gas which will drive the smaller operators out of the market and give greater pricing power to the larger operators and service companies. in the end everyone but NG consumers, T-bone, and the 'mom and pop' gas producers and service companies will be happy.