The notion of fracking is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). The term, however, is frequently used to refer to a method that allows extracting oil and gas from unconventional fields .
Fracking, also called in our language fracturing, fracturing or hydraulic stimulation , is based on the development of drilling a horizontal or vertical well to generate channels that, through the injection of high-pressure water combined with certain chemicals, cause a fracture or expand those that already exist in the rock substrate that contains the hydrocarbon . In this way, oil or gas comes to the surface.
Hydrocarbons are defined as organic compounds , that is, molecules whose content is based on carbon (they may have other elements, although less frequently) that form carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds. In the particular case of hydrocarbons, their composition consists only of hydrogen and carbon. This is the main topic of organic chemistry. Their carbon chains can take on various shapes: both linear and branched, as well as open or closed.
This technique became very popular in recent years since, as fuel prices rose, its methodology became profitable. However, there are many detractors of fracking due to the danger it poses to the environment.
From the oil and gas industry they affirm that fracking presents risks similar to those of the rest of the technologies applied in the sector. They also highlight that fracking makes it possible to exploit hydrocarbons that, until then, were inaccessible , generating economic benefits and helping to satisfy an energy demand that continues to grow worldwide. It is estimated that natural gas production in the United States increased by 35% since 2005 thanks to the application of fracking, which represented significant savings because it was no longer necessary to import it.
Those who oppose fracking, on the other hand, maintain that this technique has a very high environmental impact : it requires the consumption of large quantities of water and contaminates the surface, aquifers and the atmosphere . They even claim that, with the rise of fracking, seismic activity increased due to the injection of fluids into the subsoil.
Although fracking continues to be very relevant today, it is important to note that it originated in the 19th century, more precisely in the 1860s, in the United States of America. In the beginning, the subsoil was injected with nitroglycerin, an organic compound that is obtained after mixing glycerin, sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid. Since 1930, acids began to replace explosives, but it was only in 1947 that experts considered the use of water.
Two years later, the Stanolind Oil company began to use this method industrially. Fracking did not take long to reach other parts of the world, since by the beginning of the following decade it was adopted in several European and African countries, including: the Soviet Union, Poland, Norway, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, France, Austria , Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey, Romania, Algeria and Tunisia.
If we talk about fracking, it is common for the name of Geroge P. Mitchell to arise, who is currently considered the father of this technique in its modern version. This recognition is due to the fact that it became economically viable in the Barnett Shale field: it managed to reduce costs until the necessary investment was only four dollars for every million British thermal units ( BTU ). In doing so, he led his company , Mitchell Energy , to become the first commercially active hydraulic fracturer in 1998.