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The US shale gas has impacted the global oil and gas industry significantly in recent years. Fracking, a disputed technique for extracting oil and gas has become the discussion in the US election campaign. Will banning fracking damage the US energy industry?
Hydraulic fracturing refers to a technique that aims for the restoration of gas from shale rocks which are deeply bedded underground. The process includes millions of gallons of fluid (a mixture of water) sand and chemicals are injected at an extremely high pressure to break shale rocks.
In recent years, the rapid adoption of hydraulic fracturing has made the US pioneer in the oil and gas industry, producing billions of barrels of oil and trillion of cubic feet natural gas. Fracking has become the dominant oil and gas extraction technique in the US.
Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands of shale gas have been drilled throughout the country. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), around 670,000 of the 977,000 producing wells (making 69% of the oil and natural gas) were hydraulically fractured drilled since 2016.
The recent wave from several democratic presidential candidates has called for a ban on hydraulic fracturing in their election 2020 campaigns. They advised the government to ban fracturing and combat climate change.
If the ban is successfully implemented then the implications would be severe. It will desolate the US energy sector, while the energy prices would skyrocket.
A major implication would be job loses in the energy sector.
Another impact would be a price rise.
In one study which was conducted a few years back, estimated that in the case of banning fracking, the costs of gasoline and electricity would be almost doubled; and the living expense would increase by around $4,000 over a few years time. Not sure if that is true. Appear exaggerated to me.
The ban on fracking would threaten US energy security and would increase dependence on imports.