In 1866 U.S. Patent No. 59,936 was issued to Civil War veteran Col. Edward Roberts. His invention was known simply as "Exploding Torpedo."
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Idea of injecting a nonexplosive fluid into the ground to stimulate a well began to be attempted.
Stanolind Oil conducted the first experimental fracturing in the Hugoton field located in southwestern Kansas. The treatment utilized napalm (gelled gasoline) and sand from the Arkansas River.
Halliburton conducted the first two commercial fracturing treatments in Stephens County, Oklahoma, and Archer County, Texas.
Hydraulic fracturing was used for the time in the Cardium oil field in central Alberta, Canada.
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It was discovered that shale has naturally occurring cracks in it. If you can frack it where the cracks are, the gas comes out easily. Mitchell described it as taking a baseball bat to a windshield that already has cracks in it.
As part of an early federal effort to investigate new methods of extracting natural gas, the Department of Energy sponsors the drilling of 2,000-foot horizontal well in the Devonian Shales of Wayne County, W.Va.
Hydraulic fracturing had been successfully applied nearly one million times
Hydraulic fracturing is used on a massive scale.
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Companies then used fracking technology and applied it to the Bakken in North Dakota and Marcellus in Pennsylvania.
Hydraulic fracturing was exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act by the Bush administration
U.S. House of Representatives introduces the Fracking Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act to repeal fracking's exemption from the SDWA. The act never came to a vote.
The EPA, documented the first study tracing underground water pollution back to fracking after monitoring water sources in Wyoming.
The study showed that the water contained high levels of benzene, acetone, toluene and traces of diesel fuel in wells.
The US is predicted to be the largest oil producer in the world.
Natural gas is expected to account for a quarter of the world’s total energy.