The potential for spills and leaks of contaminated liquids from shale gas developments

Abstract

Rapid growth of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas within the USA and the possibility of shale developments within Europe has created public concern about the risks of spills and leaks associated with the industry. Reports from the Texas Railroad Commission (1999 to 2015) and the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission (2009 to 2015) were used to examine spill rates from oil and gas well pads. Pollution incident records for England and road transport incident data for the UK were examined as an analogue for potential offsite spills associated with transport for a developing shale industry. The Texas and Colorado spill data shows that the spill rate on the well pads has increased over the recorded time period. The most common spill cause was equipment failure. Within Colorado 33% of the spills recorded were found during well pad remediation and random site inspections. Based on data from the Texas Railroad Commission, a UK shale industry developing well pads with 10 lateral wells would likely experience a spill for every 16 well pads developed. The same well pad development scenario is estimated to require at least 2856 tanker movements over two years per well pad. Considering this tanker movement estimate with incident and spill frequency data from UK milk tankers, a UK shale industry would likely experience an incident on the road for every 12 well pads developed and a road spill for every 19 well pads developed. Consequently, should a UK shale industry be developed it is important that appropriate mitigation strategies are in place to minimise the risk of spills associated with well pad activities and fluid transportation movements.

Setting the baseline for shale gas – Establishing effective sentinels for water quality impacts of unconventional hydrocarbon development

“…The volume of fracturing fluid used varies depending on the shale-play, the operator, well depth, the number of fracturing stages and the length of the wells (Nicot and Scanlon, 2012). The European Parliament summarised the US literature on the volume of water required per well and found the volume ranged from 1500 to 45000 m 3 (Clancy et al, 2018), whilst Jiang et al (2014) note that the average Marcellus well consumes 20000 m 3 (with a range from 6700 to 33000 m 3 ) of freshwater per well over its lifetime. The single well drilled in the UK at Preese Hall (Lancashire) required 8400 m 3 of water.…”

Thermal desorption treatment of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils of tundra, taiga, and forest steppe landscapes

“…It is a known fact that soil contamination with petroleum products occurs properly during drilling and production of hydrocarbons, while, in addition to on-land plants, marine production is a serious threat to the soil due to pollution of coastal areas (Cozzarelli et al 2017 ; Berkadu et al 2018 ; Correa Pabón et al 2019 ). According to certain findings, operational issues of extraction equipment are one of the most common causes of emergency spills (Clancy et al 2018 ).…”

Compartmentalisation and groundwater–surface water interactions in a prospective shale gas basin: Assessment using variance analysis and multivariate statistics on water quality data

“…The rapid expansion of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to exploit unconventional shale gas reservoirs in the United States has led to a range of environmental concerns: induced seismicity (Davies, Foulger, Bindley, & Styles, 2013); water usage and contamination (Kondash, Lauer, & Vengosh, 2018; Vengosh, Jackson, Warner, Darrah, & Kondash, 2014; Vengosh, Warner, Jackson, & Darrah, 2013); fugitive methane (CH 4 ) emissions (Boothroyd, Almond, Qassim, Worrall, & Davies, 2016; Boothroyd, Almond, Worrall, Davies, & Davies, 2018); human health effects (Currie, Greenstone, & Meckel, 2017); air quality and noise (Goodman et al, 2016); and surface footprint (Clancy, Worrall, Davies, & Gluyas, 2018). Potential contamination of surface waters and groundwater from spills or subsurface contaminant migration has been a particularly common concern (Vidic, Brantley, Vandenbossche, Yoxtheimer, & Abad, 2013).…”