Con Law (19 page)

The video showed a drill bit cutting through a blue aquifer at ‘300–1,000 feet’ and then descending down to a gas reservoir at ‘5,000–13,000 feet.’

‘Additionally, steel pipes, called casing, cemented in place, provide a multi-layered barrier to protect fresh-water aquifers.’

Book raised his hand, as if he were back in third grade. Billy Bob paused the video and raised his eyebrows.

‘Yes,
Professor?’

‘Steel and cement casing,’ Book said. ‘Isn’t that what they had on that offshore rig that blew out, spilled millions of gallons of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico?’

‘What they had were idiots making decisions.’

Billy Bob clicked the remote and resumed the video.

‘
During the past sixty years, the oil and gas industry has conducted fracture stimulations in over one million wells worldwide. The initial steps are the same as for any conventional well. A hole is drilled straight down using fresh-water-based fluid, which cools the drill bit, carries the rock cuttings back to the surface, and stabilizes the wall of the well bore. Once the hole extends below the deepest fresh-water aquifer, the drill pipe is removed and replaced with steel pipe, called surface casing. Next, cement is pumped down the casing. When it reaches the bottom, it is pumped down and then back up between the casing and the bore hole wall, creating an impermeable additional protective barrier between the well bore and any fresh-water sources.
’

Book raised his hand again. Billy Bob paused the video again.

‘Impermeable?’ Book said. ‘Cement sidewalks crack over time, why not cement casings? Can you guarantee no leakage?’

‘Industry guidelines only require no
significant
leakage.’

‘Significant? What does that mean?’

‘More than insignificant.’

Billy Bob restarted the video.

‘
What makes drilling for hydrocarbons in a shale formation unique is the necessity to drill horizontally. Vertical drilling continues to a depth called the “kickoff point.” This is where the well bore begins curving to become horizontal.
’

The animation showed the drill bit slowly turning to a ninety-degree course through the earth.

‘
When the targeted distance is reached, the drill pipe is removed and additional steel casing is inserted through the full length of the well bore. Once again, the casing is cemented in place. Once the drilling is finished and the final casing has been installed, the drilling rig is removed and preparations are made for the next steps: well completion. The first step in completing a well is the creation of a connection between the final casing and the reservoir rock. This consists of lowering a specialized tool called a perforating gun, which is equipped with shaped explosive charges, down to the rock layer containing oil or natural gas. This perforating gun is then fired, which creates holes through the casing, cement, and into the target rock. These perforating holes connect the reservoir and the well bore. Since these perforations are only a few inches long and are performed more than a mile underground, the entire process is imperceptible on the surface.
’

Book held
up a hand. Billy Bob exhaled then stopped the video.

‘You’re setting off explosive charges inside the earth?’

‘Same thing they do in mining.’

‘I read something about fracking causing earthquakes.’

Billy Bob snorted. ‘
Minor
earthquakes.’

He resumed the video.

‘
The perforation gun is then removed in preparation for the next step: hydraulic fracturing. The process consists of pumping a mixture of mostly water …
’

Book raised a finger; he felt almost apologetic. Billy Bob paused the video.

‘How much water?’

‘Five million gallons.’

‘Per well?’

‘Yep.’

‘What’s your source?’

‘Aquifer.’

‘That’s drinking water.’

‘Not after I use it to fracture a well.’

‘Lot of water.’

‘Lot of gas. But actually, Professor, it’s not that much water because it’s a one-time usage with fracturing. A regulation golf course uses five million gallons of water every month. And we only use two gallons of water per million BTUs. Ethanol production uses twenty-five hundred gallons to produce the same amount of energy.’ Another snort of disgust. ‘What a joke that is. And Bush gave ’em the ethanol tax break. Now every farmer in America is growing corn for the ethanol plants.’

He restarted
the video.

‘… and sand plus a few chemicals …’

Nadine shot her hand into the air and waved it like Ms. Garza wanting attention. Billy Bob paused the video and regarded her.

‘You too, Honeywell?’

‘What chemicals?’

‘Same stuff you find under your kitchen sink.’

‘Like Drano?’

‘You want your kids drinking frack fluids?’ Book said.

‘Maybe, but the little bastards live in Houston with their mother. My first ex. Second ex, she lives in Dallas. Third, she got my house in Aspen. Goddamn community property laws. You’d think I’d learn about women.’

‘Or they’d learn about you.’

‘Hey, they did just fine by me.’

Almost as if he were bragging about how much he had lost in his divorces.

‘But not to worry, Professor, we’re not contaminating the groundwater. The chemicals we use, they’re harmless. Watch.’

He restarted the video. On the screen a list of chemicals came up. Book read the list aloud.

‘Chloride.’

‘Table salt,’ Billy Bob said.

‘Polyacrylamide.’

‘In contact lenses.’

‘Ethylene glycol.’

‘Household
cleaners.’

‘Sodium and potassium carbonate.’

‘Laundry detergent.’

‘Glutaraldehyde.’

‘Disinfectant.’

‘Guar gum.’

‘Ice cream.’

‘Citric acid.’

‘Sodas, ice cream, cosmetics.’

‘Isopropanol.’

‘Deodorant.’

Billy Bob turned his hands up as if innocent of all charges.

‘See, Professor, that’s just regular stuff. We ain’t putting diesel fuel down the hole anymore.’

‘You used to?’

‘Back in the day. But the Environmental Protection Agency banned diesel in slick water back in oh-five.’

‘Slick water? Is that the same as frack fluid?’

‘We don’t say frack, so we call it slick water.’

‘I guess that does sound better than “toxic brew” or “chemical cocktail.”’

‘Much.’

‘
… under controlled conditions into deep underground reservoir formations. The chemicals are generally for lubrication, to keep bacteria from forming, and help carry the sand. These chemicals typically range in concentration from zero-point-one to zero-point-five percent by volume …
’

Book raised his hand; Billy Bob sighed and stopped the video.

‘Damn, Professor, I wouldn’t want to go to a movie show with you.’

‘One-half percent of five million gallons is still, what—’

‘Twenty-five thousand gallons,’ Nadine said

Book and Billy Bob both cut their eyes to her. She shrugged.

‘I’m good with numbers.’

Book turned
back to Billy Bob. ‘Twenty-five thousand gallons of toxic chemicals pumped down into the earth? In each well?’

‘Can we watch the video? This is the good part.’

Billy Bob pointed the remote, and the animation went into action.

‘
… and help to improve the performance of the stimulation. This stimulation fluid is sent to trucks that pump the fluid into the well bore and out through the perforations that were noted earlier. This process creates fractures in the oil and gas reservoir rock. The sand in the frack fluid—
’

Nadine gave a fake gasp. ‘OMG—he said frack.’

Billy Bob shook his head as if exasperated with a child.

‘
—remains in these fractures in the rock and keeps them open when the pump pressure is relieved. This allows the previously trapped oil or natural gas to flow to the well bore more easily. This initial stimulation segment is then isolated with a specially designed plug and the perforating guns are used to perforate the next stage. This stage is then hydraulically fractured in the same manner. This process is repeated along the entire horizontal section of the well, which can extend several miles. Once the stimulation is complete, the isolation plugs are drilled out and production begins. Initially water, and then natural gas or oil, flows into the horizontal casing and up the well bore. In the course of initial production of the well, approximately fifteen to fifty percent of the fracturing fluid is recovered.
’

Book raised his hand. Billy Bob stopped the video.

‘So only fifteen to fifty percent of five million gallons—’

He glanced at Nadine.

‘Seven hundred fifty thousand to two-and-a-half million gallons.’

‘—is recovered. Which means at least fifty percent of those chemicals—’

‘Twelve thousand five hundred gallons.’

‘—and maybe as much as eighty-five percent—’

‘Twenty-one thousand two hundred fifty gallons.’

‘—isn’t
recovered. What happens to all those chemicals?’

Billy Bob shrugged. ‘They stay in the reservoir. There’s five to ten thousand feet of rock between the gas formation and the aquifer, Professor. Fluids can’t migrate through a mile or two of rock. That’s why they call it rock. Those chemicals ain’t going anywhere.’

‘You sure?’

‘Pretty sure.’

Billy Bob restarted the video.

‘
This fluid is either recycled to be used on other fracturing operations or safely disposed of according to government regulations.
’

Billy Bob paused the video before Book could raise his hand.

‘Do you recycle your frack fluid?’ Book asked.

‘Slick water. And no. Too damn expensive.’

‘What do you do with it?’

‘Pump it down disposal wells.’

‘What’s a disposal well?’

‘Deep salt-water wells. We dump everything from sewage to radioactive substances down those holes—’

‘Like frack fluids?’

‘—stuff the law won’t allow to be disposed in rivers and streams. We got fifty-two thousand disposal wells in Texas, more than any other state.’

‘Is that something to brag about? That we’re putting more toxic chemicals into the earth than any other state?’

‘Don’t worry, Professor. The Railroad Commission regulates what goes down the hole.’

‘Why doesn’t that make me feel better?’

Billy Bob resumed the video.

‘
The whole process of developing a well typically takes from three to five months. A few weeks to prepare the site, four to six weeks to drill the well, and then one to three months of completion activities, which includes one to seven days of stimulation. But this three-to five-month investment can result in a well that will produce oil or natural gas for twenty to forty years or more.
’

Billy Bob
ended the video. He sighed wistfully. ‘I love that movie.’

As if he had just watched
Casablanca
.

‘I take it that video wasn’t put out by the Sierra Club?’ Book said.

‘Marathon Oil. Put it on YouTube.’

Billy Bob Barnett seemed satisfied with his defense of fracking. But Book wanted him to continue, in the hope that he would over-talk, as guilty witnesses often felt compelled to do. Thus, another provocative question was called for, an inquiry that called into question the validity of his life’s work, which is to say, his manhood.

‘Billy Bob, is it really worth it?’

‘Is what worth what?’

‘Fracking. I mean, it’s a huge environmental controversy, here and around the world. Is it really worth fighting over?’

Billy Bob’s face registered an expression of absolute dis belief. He pointed at the screen on the wall.

‘Did you hear what he just said? Twenty to forty years, Professor. Twenty to forty years of turning the lights on, cooking on the stove, heating and cooling your home, watching reality shows on TV … twenty to forty years of electricity. Unless you want to live in the dark, it’s damn sure worth fighting for.’

His face glowed red.

‘Why not solar and wind power?’

Billy Bob rolled his eyes. ‘You liberals think the sun and the wind can do it all. They can’t. Not yet. I want us to be energy independent, too, Professor, so I’m all for solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, you name it. Anything that’ll get us off Muslim oil. And maybe in twenty or thirty years those technologies will be able to power the planet or at least America. But not today. Oil, gas, and coal supply eighty-five percent of our energy today. And we need energy today. Easy to sit in your ivy tower—’

‘Ivory
. Like the elephant tusk, not ivy like the plant.’

‘Oh.’ He rebooted his thought. ‘Easy to sit in your ivory tower and preach your liberal politics, but what’ll happen to America when the Muslims decide to sell their oil to the Chinese instead of us ’cause they’ll pay more? When we don’t have the energy to power our factories and light our homes? Our cars, trains, and planes? What happens to America then, Professor?’

Billy Bob stood and walked over to the U.S. map on the side wall. They followed.

‘Current estimate is that we’ve got a hundred years’ supply of natural gas in North America.’ He pointed the cigar at shaded areas on the map. ‘The big shale plays are the Horn River and Montney up in Canada, the Barnett—no relation—Eagle Ford, and the Woodford in Texas, Haynesville in Louisiana, Fayetteville in Arkansas, and the big daddy of them all, the Marcellus Shale. That one field covers ninety-five thousand square miles of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, contains two-thirds of U.S. reserves.’

‘I thought they put a moratorium on fracking in New York?’

Billy Bob nodded. ‘Vermont, too, even though no one’s found shale gas in the state. Said it was a show of solidarity. Goofy liberals.’

He now stepped to the world map and again used the cigar as a pointer.

‘Shale gas has been found in northern UK and Europe—Poland, Austria, Sweden, Romania, Germany, France …’

‘Didn’t the French ban fracking?’

He shrugged. ‘They’re French.’

Billy Bob pointed the cigar at other nations.