By Phil Riske | Managing Editor | Rose Law Group Repoter
[EXCLUSIVE] The cart is ahead of the horse in Arizona when it comes to fracking, the controversial drilling process used to extract oil and has from shale deposts. Fracking has come under fire and regulations after charges it contaminates groundwater supplies — even causing drinking water to burst into flames.
There has been minimal fracking and no shale exploration in Arizona, but the potential for shale exploration in the state has been the subject of several recent studies and articles.
The Arizona Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AZOGCC) has received several inquiries over the past few years regarding shale gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in Arizona, Arizona Geology Magazine reports.
The AZOGCC has rules to ensure fracturing oil and gas wells is done safely and does not contaminate groundwater or surface resources. Permission is not required in advance of fracturing, however, but an operator is required to report hydraulic fracturing activities to the AZOGCC in writing showing the type of stimulation, the amounts and types of materials used, pressures applied, and the flow and pressure results before and after stimulation, the magazine reports.
Officials from Arizona and other Western states last year demanded limits on oil-shale drilling along the Colorado River over concerns the thirst for oil could lead to polluted water supplies for millions of people.
The commission says there are no shale gas wells in Arizona, and there has been no horizontal drilling and no hydraulic fracturing associated with those types of wells. No wells have ever been drilled in Arizona for shale gas because the geology of Arizona does not include the extensive areas of the type of shale formation that shale-gas developers are looking for.
Only ten wells have been hydraulically fractured in Arizona in the past 15 years, and were drilled for carbon dioxide gas, not shale gas, in east-central Arizona between St Johns and Springerville, reports Arizona Geology Magazine.
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New developments
In the Southwestern U.S., the Cretaceous Mancos Shale is part of the stratigraphic sequence in both the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico and Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona, reports the Arizona Geology blog. It has been the source of much oil and gas in the San Juan Basin, with renewed drilling and hydrofracturing now underway, but has received little attention in Arizona, where it underlies the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations. In light of this discrepancy, the Arizona Geological Survey reexamined existing well data and rock unit descriptions for the Mancos Shale in northern Arizona, the blog writes.
Black Mesa has been an important source of coal in Arizona since the 1970s. Currently, Peabody Energy strip mines coal from the Wepo Formation near Kayenta on Black Mesa to fuel the 2,250 megawatt Navajo Generating Station.
The Mancos Shale in Arizona underlies the Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona. A member of the Arizona Oil & Gas Conservation Commission has mapped the extent, depth and thickness of the Marcos Shale.
Researchers say they are not aware of any geological evidence that would indicate petroleum potential of Marcos, but they add given the enthusiasm next door in New Mexico, Arizona could soon be attracting exploration as well.
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See Annual Oil and Gas Activity in Arizona 1959 to 2012
