One of the most important advents for the energy sector in the last decades has been hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as ‘fracking’. As a method of unconventional oil and gas production, it can reach not yet exploited reserves of natural gas and oil in shale rock and limestone through vertical drilling. It has gained attention primarily in the United States as a result of a restructuring of the oil industry after its crisis in 1973 when new homeland reserves and more effective ways of independent extraction were sought after (Wylie 2018). What is problematic about this method is not only its immediate effects, such as leakage of harmful chemicals used in the process as for example 2-Butoxyethanol, ethylene glycol monobutyl and ammonium, which spoil surrounding land and water reserves, but also its significant contribution to rising CO2-levels.

As a local, on-shore extraction technology, Fracking is known for its proximity to domestic spaces, and often uncanny and forceful intrusion into the space of the domestic, with gas and chemicals often leaking into tap water, as for example Josh Fox’s academy award-nominated documentary Gasland (2010) impressively documented. It also marks a new era in fossil fuel extraction, as more sophisticated digital technologies (forms of seismic data interpretation) are required to find the reservoir it seeks to tap into (1). This resulted in the privatization or ‘black boxing’ of knowledge of the subterranean geography and illuminates the sheer inaccessibility, not only physically but also intellectually, of the subsurface for the individual. At the site itself, fences, hedges and trees, and security cameras monitor and dictate the visitor’s ability to engage with the fracking site itself, even if it is only through the gaze. 

The Weald Basin has become a gold mine in recent years. Crude oil sits savely in the Kimmeridge Clay and then there is shale oil in the Lower Jurassic. The Kimmeridge Clay is not as soft as one might assume, but from the images I saw, it seems like it could still be easily broken with bare hands if it’s a thin enough piece.

It is said that the oil found here is light, its lightness is defined in “API” according to the following index of the American Petroleum Institute: API = (141.5/Specific Gravity) - 131.5. Lightness is good, it means lower density, which means it is higher in value. It’s also low in the light yellow sulphur which would diminish its value. It is a waxy crude and I am not sure what that feels like, but:

“[...] there could be shale oil resources in the range of 2.2-8.5 billion barrels of oil (290-1100 million tonnes) in the ground, reflecting uncertainty until further drilling is done. A reasonable central estimate is 4.4 billion barrels of oil (591 billion tonnes).“ [UK Oil and Gas Authority Weald Basin Summary 2014]

(1) This has led to new bonds between corporations, the government and higher education institutions such as for example the partnership between Schlumberger & Halliburton’s and MITES).

Works cited:

Fox, Josh, director. Gasland. International WOW Company, 2010. 

Wylie, Sara Ann. Fractivism, Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds . Duke University Press, 2018.