Natural gas in Oklahoma
We will frack you
The rise of shale gas continues
Nov 19th 2011 | OKLAHOMA CITY | from the print edition

..
Cleaner than it looks
A PRAIRIE wind whips the flags that fly from a Chesapeake Energy rig near Kingfisher, Oklahoma, but the noise of the drill drowns out the weather. A clutch of roughnecks, smudged with dirt and tattoos, are coring the earth, bringing up a little slice from the shale formation below. If the tests prove promising, the well will be hydraulically fractured or “fracked”.

That process is transforming the natural-gas industry. Ten years ago virtually all of America’s natural-gas production came from traditional gas or oil wells reached by vertical drills. But companies were learning how to drill horizontal wells and how to use high-pressure water to break up the shale formations to release the gas inside. Such techniques have become increasingly cost-effective as companies have got more practice. In 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration, about 14% of America’s natural gas came from shale. By 2035 that is projected to rise to 46%. At the current rate of consumption, between shale and the conventional sources, the United States could have enough natural gas to last a century.

In this section
Crying wolf
Keystone cop-out
»We will frack you
The efficiency conundrum
Sunshine or colonoscopy?
Many scrappy returns
The Becks effect
What goes around
The trouble with Newt
Reprints

——————————————————————————–

Related topics
Government and politics
Politics
Colorado politics
American politics
Oklahoma
Some assumptions about the energy mix are therefore being revisited, particularly in states with big shale formations, such as Oklahoma. On November 9th several hundred people gathered in Oklahoma City for the governor’s energy conference. Natural gas was the star of the show. Mary Fallin, the governor, announced a joint pledge with John Hickenlooper, governor of Colorado, to stock their state fleets with cars powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), if America’s carmakers will provide some more options. But she also called for more wind power, as a complement to fossil fuels, and greater energy efficiency, an area where Oklahoma lags behind most of the country.

The ecumenical approach seemed to annoy some executives. “There’s a little too much emphasis on wind here for my taste,” said Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake. The argument from this quarter is that natural gas is a proven good, while wind and solar are unreliable and need lots of government handouts.

But natural gas has sceptics too. Though cleaner than oil or coal, it does emit greenhouse gases when burned. Critics continue to worry that fracking fluid can get into aquifers via accidents, or that fracking simply uses too much water. A growing concern on the part of some is “seismicity”. Several days before the governor’s conference Oklahoma experienced a 5.6-magnitude earthquake—its strongest in nearly 60 years. At present, Ms Fallin said, there was no scientific evidence linking it to drilling or fracking.

A pragmatic argument against the rage for gas is its subsidiary costs. In Kingfisher a petrol station was selling CNG at $1.39 a gallon, compared with $3.29 for regular fuel. But the CNG refuelling system at the side of the station would cost several hundred thousand dollars, and CNG vehicles currently sell for several thousand dollars more than models with conventional engines. Finally, though the reserves discovered now may last for decades, shale gas is ultimately an exhaustible resource. In energy terms, America has not yet found the silver bullet.