Shale Gas for Dummies

Schematic of fraacked horizontal well

For whatever reason, the path from "a dead dinosaur"¹ to your SUV's gas tank is a complete black box for most consumers. Some appear to be so disconnected from reality that they apparently think that there is an oil well under every gas station. Others know this to be a fallacy, but know little else. In the case of one freelancer, WiseGEEK.com writer James Doehring, the "little else" business is pretty obvious as he tries to explain "What is Shale Gas?" for the site's AlltheScience.com niche.

Doehring's ignorance is on display right up front, coming as it does in the first few sentences of his introduction:

"Shale gas refers to natural gas mined from shale wells. A form of gas-rich rock, shale is often found in layers in the ground. "

James managed to pack a lot of ignorance into those twenty-five word, including:

• You don't "mine" natural gas, you "produce" or "extract" it.
• It's not a "shale well"; it's a gas well.
• Shale is not defined by being gas-rich, it's defined by its mineralogy and texture.
• Moron, shale is always found in layers in the ground!

More ignorance follows:

"Shale is a type of sedimentary rock that contains clay and minerals such as quartz." – Quartz is not a clay mineral, and it's not a significant component of shale. "It is commonly found in rocks from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras, meaning that it is often between 500 and 700 million years old." – Shale is found in every age rock, James, not to mention that 700 mya is in the Precambrian while the Mesozioc lasted from about 220 to 65 mya "Shales are known to be rich in organic matter, including natural gas." – Some are rich, some aren't. By the way, natural gas is not "organic matter"... A few passages contain within them a kernel of fact (perhaps accidentally?), including, "...shale gas wells are typically not permeable enough to allow for easy extraction of natural gas..." – Actually, it's shale that lacks permeability, not the wells.

• "Horizontal drilling... is used because shale wells often stretch horizontally in layers that are not very thick in the vertical direction." – No, James, shale is in layers; not shale wells. Oh, and in what other direction would a layer be thick, hmmmm?
• "To maximize the flow of natural gas, however, the surface area of the well in contact with the borehole must be maximized." – Umm, James? The well is the borehole. You mean the surface area of the formation exposed to the borehole must be maximized

So many mistakes, so much misinformation: can we somehow find a reason not to name Doehring our Dumbass of the Day? Nope: he is.

¹ No, it's not really "dead dinosaurs," people!

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