I can assure you that I would not have any problems with a competent operator drilling and fraccing in my back yard .
The life of a well casing depends on many things and different grades of steel alloy are available to handle corrosives in the gas like hydrogen sulphide content (H2S) .
The cements used for sealing the outside of the well to formations may have elastomers in the mix to provide some give . This is an engineering challenge .
Half those wells in the US have not had their casing bonded to the surrounding rock full length , they've only had cement sheaves to plug them in strategic places .
The long laterals you talk about minimise the number of verticals which have to be drilled - i.e. minimise the failure points .
They also give freedom to locate surface facilities away from peoples houses if that is a concern .
The potential environmental issues with a shale well are dwarfed by a nuclear installation or an accident at any number of different types of chemical facility yet we don't ban them .
If I was looking for environmental effects , rather than focus on a localised and brief shale operation I'd be looking at farming which spreads a whole lot of different chemicals across the entire UK every year and also the stuff which people tip down their sinks and flush down their toilets .
I've seen Ingraffea's videos before and the "many channels" he talks about only exist if a well is constructed improperly or the geology is unsuitable .
Other than the thermal cycles each time a frac treatment takes place due to the difference in temperature between the fluid and the surrounding rock and pumping pressure on the casing , barring a very significant seismic event , the vertical section of the well does not appear to be any more prone to leaking than a well which is not frac'd which ends up in a reservoir with formation water .
DTE Price at posting:
9.7¢ Sentiment: ST Buy Disclosure: Held
