Hydraulic Fracturing Used in Ohio for More Than 40 Years, Thousands of Wells Drilled Without Incident

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Last night a crowd of more than 500 turned out in Ravenna (Portage County), Ohio to hear details about the oil and gas industry in OH, specifically about hydraulic fracturing (for “fracking”) and its current use in both oil and natural gas drilling.

Rhonda Reda, executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, said hydraulic fracturing has been a common method for more than 40 years, used in tens of thousands of wells without incident.

“If hydraulic fracturing is banned, it will shut down our energy industry,” Reda said.

Reda said 99.5 percent of the material used is sand and water, “and yes, there are some chemical components but they are absolutely needed.”

Reda noted Portage County is no stranger to the oil and gas industry, with 2,324 producing wells in the county, and 4,436 total wells drilled.

The working wells produces about $6.36 million per year in royalties to property owners, she said.*

Also this from the  meeting:

Thomas G. Tugend, deputy chief for the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s Division of Mineral Resources Management, outlined the permitting and inspection process for all oil and gas well drilling in Ohio.

Tugend said that of the 15,220 wells drilled in Ohio from 1990 to 2009, about 90 percent used hydraulic fracturing.

As of Jan. 19, the state had issued 72 permits for drilling into the Marcellus shale. Only nine of those permits were for horizontal drilling, and only two wells have been drilled.*

*Record-Courier (Feb 8, 2011) – Fracking forum draws 500

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