Dear Editor,
On Saturday, September 5, 2020, The Dallas Morning News printed n article that had to do with our two up-front and running candidates for President of The United States in the approaching election. The issue was how each of the candidates stood on the Oil and Gas Industry practice of ‘Fracking’. Obviously, both of them, President Donald Trump and hopeful Joe Biden were attempting to lure the voters with their accusations and subtle promises. One accuses the other of wanting to ban future ‘fracking’ in oil field production and the other denies it and throws the accusation back at the opponent. It is much like watching a tennis match where the little white ball bounces back and forth from one to the other of the two players. Except: There is no winner. The reader is left in an apprehensive state.
Now, you will hear the rest of the story. And the beginning of a story.
The writer of this presentation has, in my earlier days, months and months of experience in the Oil and Gas fields. As a laborer fresh out of Freestone County I worked on numerous drilling rigs in East Texas and throughout Louisiana. We were called ‘Roughnecks’. We were-and they still are. The ones who get the real work done. I entered the crowed as an innocent. I left it as a professional. I paid the price and at the same time, I observed.
On each location where we were drilling, there was a pre-determined depth that was planned and the drill pipe was brought in and stored on racks to achieve that tgoal. Sometimes we would go the full depth. Other times we would stop short if the Engineers found what they were looking for-a strong production area to be explored. This was determined by the testing of earth particles that came up with the circulating drilling mud and was being checked constantly by the mud engineer. The samples were collected and they would check them with special detection equipment to determine the strength of gas or oil presence at particular depths.
Then, there was always the possibility of drilling directly into a high pressure pocket containing oil or gas or both. That was determined by watching the pressure gauge at the drilling platform or through a detection device that would set off an alarm when hold pressure increased (or dropped) to abnormal levels.
In those days (50’s) the engineers used a process called “perforating”. These were the days prior to the advent of hydraulic fracturing (now called fracking). That process had not been discovered at that time or it was not used.
When a hot spot had been determined and the depth or depths ascertained, the engineers would call in a company that specialized in wire line technology and trained in the perforation process. The tool they used looked like a big, long piece of pipe when laid across the racks. Except that it had lots of small holes drilled all around and down the length of the section. These holes were filled with explosive charges, each one wired through the core, up to the top of the toll that would e attached to the wire line controlled from a distant heavy vehicle where the controls were located. When the tool was ready, after the hole had been cleared, the would slowly lower it into the drilled hole and the equipment operator took over and began lowering the device to a desired level or levels. When reaching that spot and all things were verified, the cooperator would set off the desired number of charges and deep down in the hole, these explosions would go off and penetrate through the side of the well hole and on into the adjacent strata. If this penetration (or perforation) broke into a pocket with gas or oil then this would release that into the hole, along with great pressure. This was called bringing in a well.
Perforating a well was expensive. They were looking for a different way – a better way. And they found it.
Now, it is important for the reader to under4stand something. Have you ever watched pictures of companies using high-pressure water hoses or pipes in minig for diamonds or other precious stones in, say, Africa and other places like that? They use very high pressure water to virtually rake the hillsides so that the earth just falls apart and is channeled down through devices set up to trap the stones they are after. It is said, that mounatains disappear in the quest for these rches. Remember this as we talk further about the newly discovered process of underground fracturing. Using virtually the same technique in mines above ground – high pressure liquid spraying.
And so, over time, the O&G industry perfected the process of hydraulic fracturing – the use of liquid, under very high pressure, to free oil and gas from pockets otherwise unreachable with stationary perforation. The process literally rakes the strata far down underneath us in order to discover new areas of oil and gas production and thus lead to more eventual profits.
It only takes a little Internet research to discover all of the problems being reported as a result of this practice; among them, Earthquakes and groundwater pollution.
Now, ask yourself this. Where did the name fracking come from? The word fracking is not in my dictionary at all. Because this new retrieval process is so invasive, it obviously was felt that a new name needed to come forth to make the process more acceptable and not objectionable like the word ‘fracturing’, which is in my dictionary, or rather, the word is ‘fracture’ which is defined as follows:
A breaking or being broken
A break, crack or split
A break in a body part, esp in a bone or a tear in a cartilage
The texture, shape, etc., of the broken surface of a mineral as distinct from where it breaks along its cleavage plane
‘Fracturing’ is further defined as:
To break, crack or split
To break up; disrupt
So now, we can begin to see the light. ‘Fracking’ just sounds so much less invasive and harmful. All they did was ‘coin’ a new identity from an invented word – and here we are.
Do we want this tearing asunder of our precious earth to continue?
Or should it be stopped?
You are the judge.
Terry Lancaster
Teague, Texas
