Oil & gas/fracking opponents need to check their facts

It comes as a complete amazement to me that so few people in our region have any real understanding of the history of oil and gas exploration in this state or the process of fracturing.

Shawn Bennett recently provided some very factual information dealing with oil and gas drilling and fracturing. I would like to add to Shawn's points with some additional information. While I expect the opponents to drilling and fracturing will question many of my statements as well as Shawn's, they all can be easily checked and found to be accurate.

1) Oil was first discovered in Ohio in Noble County around 1814. There was little interest in this oil and no real use for it at that time. The first well drilled in Ohio for the purpose of producing oil came many years later in 1859 in Trumbull County, a few months after the famous Drake well in Titusville, Pa., went into production. Since that time, more than 273,000 wells have been drilled in the state of Ohio. The records show that 1,049 new wells were drilled in 2010 in 44 out of our 88 counties. None of these Ohio wells has ever been documented to have impacted drinking water as far as the records show.

2) Most of the early wells were shallow and because the technology to fracture them didn't exist, they were often drilled less than a few hundred yards apart. An example of this fact can be seen by going to newstraitsvilleohio.com. where wooden oil derricks can be seen throughout most of the town. Fracturing wells was actually developed in 1949 but only first used in Ohio in 1953. Since that time, the great majority of wells in Ohio have been fractured. Fracturing a well allows gas and oil to be drawn from a much larger area, thus allowing fewer vertical shafts to be drilled. Most of this early fracturing was done by using dynamite or fertilizer.

Today the use of water with small amounts of chemicals is the preferred method for fracturing. The chemicals used in water fracturing are gelling agents similar to that used in many food products and surfactants such as Dawn dishwashing soap. Added to that are biocides like Clorox that are used to kill bacteria. The chemical component of fracturing fluids is less than 2 percent of the total volume.

Well fracturing does use large volumes of water, but so do our nation's golf courses. It is estimated that golf courses use 476 billion gallons of water each year for irrigation. That's about 150 million gallons per course per year, and that does very little to make this country energy independent.

3) Ohio is the nation's fourth largest producer of oil and gas combined, only ranking behind Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. There was even a brief period of time when Ohio led the nation in oil production.

4) Ohio is one of the leading states in natural gas production, and almost 100 percent of that natural gas stays within the state. We are fortunate to have this clean source of energy that greatly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, does not contribute to smog or air pollution, and reduces the emissions that cause acid rain.

5) Approximately 54,000 people are currently employed in the oil and gas industry within our state. The average starting wage for the oil and gas industry is near $60,000 annually, a little bit better than the fast-food industry. The future for high-paying jobs within this industry is very bright if we can responsibly develop this resource.

6) More than $202 million was paid to landowners in royalty payments last year in Ohio, making a significant contribution to the state's economy. This amount may double with the new development of the Marcellus and Utica shale play in eastern Ohio.

7) Most vertical wells can be drilled in less than two weeks, and they often leave a footprint smaller than the average-size house once that well is put into production. The addition of horizontal shafts can add to drilling time depending on how many legs are sent out. Every leg of a horizontal shaft reduces the number of vertical wells that would need to be drilled, reducing the number of footprints needed to extract this resource.

8) Natural gas reserves in Ohio have been estimated at over a trillion cubic feet, giving Ohio an opportunity to contribute to our country's energy independence for many years to come.

9) In the '70s and early '80s, Hocking College drilled a number of wells on the current campus, using their own drilling rig and students enrolled in that technology. More than two dozen other wells were drilled on property surrounding the college belonging to Sunday Creek Coal Company and the U.S. Forest Service. All of these wells were fractured to improve production. Many of these wells are still producing today and have benefited the college in reducing energy cost and powering vehicles.

10) The opponents to drilling and fracturing do not all drive electric cars and would have you believe that depending on the Middle East for our energy source poses less risk than developing what we have under our own feet. You be the judge!

Editor's note: Brad Harter, who owns a small farm on Pleasant Hill Road near Athens, graduated from OU in 1968 and began teaching for Hocking College in the natural resource field when the college first opened. He retired in 2004 and has continued to teach a few classes on a part-time basis. He has not yet signed oil and gas leases with anyone.