A shiver ran down my spine when I saw the news item “US Geological Survey Completes Armenia Shale Gas Resources Study” in Asbarez.
“Why?” you’re probably almost shouting out loud. “This will give our country more flexibility, make it less reliant on external energy sources, bring down prices, and render the Turco-Azeri blockades less relevant,” you’re exclaiming, as you wonder if I’ve taken leave of my sanity.
At least, those are the kinds of seemingly wonderful results we’ll be promised by those who are probably salivating over the prospect of tapping those shale gas deposits.
But getting to those reserves requires a process called hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly, fracking. Water, chemicals, other materials are injected deep underground, under very high pressure, into the shale formation to break up the solid rock that is trapping the gas, which is then free to flow up the wells that are drilled into those layers of rock.
According to an obviously pro-frackin—I’d guess fossil fuel industry-built—website, “Shale gas is natural gas trapped in hard dense deposits of shale formed from ancient sea basins millions of years ago.”
So far so good. But then, in their “FAQ” section we see: “Is the groundwater safe?”
“Yes, each well has layers of cement and steel casing to prevent groundwater leaks. Most wells are monitored with state of the art equipment.”
“Does fracking cause earthquakes?”
“An incredibly small amount of seismic activity accompanies the hydraulic fracturing process; however the low level of seismicity has resulted in no cases of injury or property damage in over one million instances.”
Why, you might wonder, are water and earthquake safety being addressed? It’s because it really is not known whether this is safe. The California legislature is, even now, wrestling with whether or not to allow fracking in the state, and under what regulations. No one knows what impact messing with these types of geological formations in seismically active areas such as California—or Armenia—will have. And all that “cement and steel casing” is in the well system itself. It’s not clear that once broken up, fluids that had been immobilized by the previously intact shale won’t travel and get mixed up with underground water supplies. Perhaps the most jarring and potent example of this is the flammable water coming out of people’s taps. This happens in farming areas where wells supply the water. After fracking begins in an area, the water coming out of the kitchen taps becomes flammable.
On the non-technical front, we should be concerned that this will be yet another natural resource for some unscrupulous oligarch to exploit and enrich himself with, at our homeland dwelling compatriots’ expense.
So let’s stop this train, dead in its tracks, before it becomes a wreck that wreaks more havoc on the tiny landmass of the Republic of Armenia.
Garen Yegparian
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Earthquakes are being studied because it is needed to counter the excessive ‘wacko’ wing of environmental groups (i.e. not the rational environmentalists). Ground water is not affected; this has been proven time after time for 30 years. Tens of thousands of wells have been fractured over the past 30 years and only 2 or 3 impacted ground water due to human error. These were detected and shut down. The fire breathing tap water was proven to be a hoax; yet the news media continues to grab on to it.
Armenia and Armenians can put a man on the moon, a robot on Mars, and yes operate an old nuclear power plant very well. We can do this too.
A shiver runs down my spine every time a false scientist gets on a soap box.
JaydeeBee is completely correct. Garen should read something other than radical web sites. Oil shale is the best news that Armenia has had in a long time. I have a Ph.D in Chemistry and completely approve of the procedure.
there was a documentary in Australia , where there was attemp of extracting shale gas ( in Queensland)and a whole residential area was affected…they turned the water tap on and lit a candle, and yes , the water from running from the tap caught on fire….say no more about the danger of shale gas!!!!
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2013/05/unesco-expresses-concern-about-fracking-near-gros-morne-natio
there are dozens of other similiar articles on line.
what has completely sold me on Garen’s article is his comment that: “On the non-technical front, we should be concerned that this will be yet another natural resource for some unscrupulous oligarch to exploit and enrich himself with, at our homeland dwelling compatriots’ expense.”
Garen’s got things figured out.
The US produces 10 million barrels oil per day. And Most of them are from fracking. Maybe Armenia and other countries have shale gas/oil basins. As a petroleum engineer, I should tell this. Yes having resources are really important However the problem is about the investment that you do while reaching it. Before making Wild Cat Drilling (This means first drilling for gas or oil in new place), it is impossible to say that it can be producable. Texas area is good to drill since it is not as high as Armenia. This menas it needs low investment. Also, the formations are important. For example in some places in world there are shale gas/oil zones. However it can not be producable. The reason is that its formation is not proper. Also, shale oil and gas could not be as good as ordinary oil and gas exprolation as Azerbaijan does at Caspian Sea.