You searched for: “natural gas”
natural gas (s); NG (noun)
A mixture of hydrocarbon gases that occurs naturally in the earth's crust with petroleum deposits, primarily consisting of methane together with varying quantities of ethane, propane, butane, and other gases, and is used as a fuel and in the manufacture of organic compounds: "

"The United States is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas."

"According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States has more than 2,552 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas; which is enough to fuel the United States for 110 years.

"Unconventional sources, such as shale gas found in the Marcellus Shale Formation beneath Pennsylvania and parts of New York and the Barnett Formation under Texas account for 60% of U.S. reserves."

"The extraction technique, known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, is done by

  • First, drill a mile down into the earth, then take a right turn and drill laterally into a shale rock formation.
  • Next, fracture the shale rock by blasting it with millions of gallons of water, sand and a small amount of chemicals.
  • Finally, withdraw that water/sand/chemical mixture, along with natural gas released from the interstices (small openings) of the fractured rock.

"Fracking fluids consist of water, sand, and a small amount of chemicals."

"Water and sand can make up more than 99.5 percent of the fluid."

"Water acts as the primary carrier fluid in hydraulic fracturing, and sand props open the fractures so that gas may escape."

—Compiled from information located in
"What’s the Fracking Problem?" by Peter L. Gray;
Environmental & Energy Management News; March 27, 2012.
This entry is located in the following unit: Fracking, Hydro Fracking, Hydraulic Fracturing Content Entries (page 1)
Fracking, Hydro Fracking, Hydraulic Fracturing Content Entries
(Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the practice of extracting natural gas from underground shale deposits by injecting high-pressure streams of water, sand, and chemicals)