"Santos wants a fracking educationBy Babs McHughTuesday,...

"Santos wants a fracking education

By Babs McHugh
Tuesday, 30/10/2012


Gas company Santos says the industry needs to do more to educate the public about the process of fracking.
Fracking involves the injection of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to fracture rocks and release the gas associated with them.
Fracking has come under fire from farming and environmental groups, who say it's an unproven process that could contaminate water aquifers.
Santos has been fracking for natural gas from sandstone in the Cooper Basin in South Australia for more than 40 years.
The gas is piped thousands of kilometres to Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney.
It's now started producing shale gas for those markets, and Santos vice-president James Baulderstone says the company will employ the same fracking technique.
"The industry has let a bit of a misinformation campaign build around the technique, which is really aimed not necessarily at natural gas, but more so at fossil fuels," he said.
"And I think it's up to us to educate the public; but clearly it can be done and it can be done well, and Santos proposes to do that here in Australia." "