(John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
By John Kemp
LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Politicians, commentators and analysts are paid to simplify.
Sometimes simplification plays a useful role helping clarify choices and issues. In other cases simplification ignores underlying complexities and trade-offs and leads only to misunderstanding and irrational decision-making.
Hydraulic fracturing is a classic case of simplification that has led only to misapprehension and confusion.
For supporters, fracking is a revolutionary technology that promises to solve the problem of oil and gas supply, provide plentiful cheap energy for decades and end over-dependence on oil imports from unstable producing areas in the Middle East.
For opponents, fracking is a dangerous practice that poisons aquifers with chemicals, diverts huge amounts of freshwater from other uses, triggers earthquakes and disrupts surface communities, as well as increasing the output of greenhouse-inducing fossil fuels, roasting the planet.
Between these two extremes, the amount of actual information and understanding about fracking has been inversely proportional to the level of emotion and rhetoric.
Sensible discussion about how to meet the energy challenges of the next few decades and safeguard the environment (at both global and local levels) has been drowned out in a war of words between the "tree huggers" and the "drill baby drill" brigade.
Gas and oil producers must shoulder some blame for failing to communicate how fracking works or what can be done to mitigate the effect on local communities. So must environmentalists for failing to explain how energy demand can be met without a substantial increase in fossil fuel resources.
In a bid to inject more facts into the debate, the list of references below contains some of the most useful articles and presentations on fracking and tight gas/oil publicly available.
It covers most aspects of the unconventional gas and oil revolution from economics and drilling technology to waste water disposal, the worldwide distribution of reserves and environmental management.
These articles have all been written from inside the oil and industry gas industry, so they tend to come with an (unstated) pro-fracking and pro-development bias.
Environmentalists will complain (justly) that they do not address the bigger question of whether tight oil and gas resources should be produced at all.
But they are the best technical treatments available, presenting various aspects of fracking and unconventional reservoir technology in an accessible manner to general readers.
If the conclusions are open to dispute, the wealth of data contained in them is not.
These articles illustrate the technical, economic, public policy and environmental issues posed by the exploitation of this new technology and are intended to reconnect the debate with the factual record:
(1) Challenges Facing Increased Production and Use of Domestic Natural Gas (Sept 2009) http://www.adv-res.com/pdf/Kuuskraa%20JHU%20GEEI%20SEPT%2016%202009.pdf
(2) Paradigm Shift in Domestic Natural Gas Resources, Supplies and Costs (Sept 2009) http://www.adv-res.com/pdf/Kuuskraa%20EFI%20Natural%20Gas%20SEP_21_09.pdf
(3) Hydraulic Fracturing -- A Historical and Impact Perspective (Jan 2011) http://media.godashboard.com//gti/EandP_Perry_SPE_HF_Jan2011_final.pdf
(4)World Shale Gas Resources: An Initial Assessment (Feb 2011) http://www.adv-res.com/pdf/ARI%20EIA%20Intl%20Gas%20Shale%20APR%202011.pdf
(5) Global Gas Shales and Unconventional Gas: Unlocking Your Potential (Sep 2011) http://media.godashboard.com//gti/GlobalGasShales_whitepaper_Sep2011_Final_3.pdf
(6) Nature and Importance of Technology Progress for Unconventional Gas (July 2007) http://www.adv-res.com/pdf/ARI%20GJ%204%20Unconventional%20Gas%20Technology%207_24_07.pdf
(7) Economics of Unconventional Gas (July 2007) http://www.adv-res.com/pdf/ARI%20OGJ%205%20Unconventional%20Gas%20Economics%207_24_07.pdf
(8) Frac factories: Multiple Pay Tight Gas Sands -- Can the lessons learned in the Rockies help you? (2010) http://www.spe.org/dl/docs/2010/MikeEberhard.pdf
(9) Produced Water Management Options -- One Size Does Not Fit All (2009) http://www.spe.org/dl/docs/2009/Veil.pdf
(10) Produced Water Management Information System (NETL) http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/PWMIS/ (editing by Jane Baird)
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