Thank you for your detailed reply. A few comments:
- Too much disinformation around about Hydraulic fracking
I could not agree more with this point.
- People fail to understand that in some situations fracking is used when water bores are drilled.
As you suggest the technology has wide application, not just in the oil and gas sector.
- Fracking, the process employed and the engineering applied is specialised. It needs to be designed for the actual local geology and conditions.
We agree again. I don't believe any sensible person would suggest otherwise.
- Thus any Fracking should be regulated through an approval process to ensure the solutions are tailored to the local environment to protect the environment.
Believe it or not, this is already the case. Both in terms of the approval process and the specifics of a given hydraulic fracturing job, this is not a simple or trival task to get a frack job approved. SOmewhat related, the process to design and get even a conventional well approved irregardless of whether the well will be fracked is expensive and time consuming.
People aren't running around willy nilly going " Gee, lets frack a well here, just because we feel like it". The costs involved are serious (typically start in 7 figures), so an operator will want to be very sure that the desired increase in production actually happens to justify the investment. Similarly the penalties involved in environmental damage should a poorly designed and/or executed fracturing job are also large, as are the clean up costs involved if things do go pear shaped.
- I seem to be proven time and again that I can't trust the government to manage or regulate anything, let alone act in a fair and reasonable manner without prejudice to favouring the larger corporations.
Somewhat ironically to this point, the bad press that CSG gets in some parts of Queensland and NSW is due to small companies with limited capital and technical capability, typically from the mining industry rather than O&G professionals, drilling CSG exploration wells using rigs, safety equipment and environmental processes that would be an embarrassment to even "minnow" O&G outfits. I actually have photographs from rehabilitated well sites left behind by these cowboys that are disgraceful. getting larger companies with sufficient capital and appropriate technical expertise involved smarted things up very quickly.
Disclosure: I am an upstream O&G industry professional and have been since the 1980's. Hydraulic fracturing is a mature well understood technology, it's been around since the late 1950's in the USA and since the 1980's in Australia (Cooper/Eromanga Basins). Designed, engineered and executed correctly, there are very very few to no issues using it to stimulate tight formations from a safety or environmental perspective.
Finally, I agree wholeheartedly with your point that conventional drilling and completions of oil and gas wells should be allowed, subject to appropriate regulatory oversight and technical approval processes. I would reiterate, wells should not be drilled willy nilly without rigorous oversight.
I suspect we are more in agreement than disagreement.
LKO Price at posting:
0.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
I don't believe any sensible person would suggest otherwise.
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