Waterless Fracking at Eagle Ford
Instead of water, the new process injects a propane gel into the ground to fracture rocks and capture oil and natural gas. Photo courtesy the Railroad Commission of TexasBy Olivia Gordon, KUT News
Waterless fracking is coming to Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale. The process involves injecting a propane gel into the ground to fracture rocks and capture oil and natural gas. The gel then becomes a gas as it returns to the surface. But the Texas Sierra Club‘s Dewayne Quertermous is worried the new method may create as many problems as the traditional fracking procedures.
“It’s so new. We don’t really know that much about it,” Quertermous says. “So we don’t really know if there’s going to be some problem with it that won’t come to light for two or three years.”
Steve Carter is a spokesman with Blackbrush Oil & Gas – the company using this relatively new waterless process. He says the company is not worried about the technology because waterless fracking does not alter the rock formation as much as traditional methods.
