The Blue Flame

There are three main techniques utilized for natural gas extraction: hydraulic fracturing, vertical drilling, and horizontal drilling. 

Natural gas extraction initially relied on vertical drilling, which remained the sole method used until the 1980s when horizontal drilling was introduced. Even today, vertical drilling is still used in specific cases where natural gas deposits are situated directly beneath the earth's surface. This is commonly known as "conventional" natural gas extraction. 

The technique of horizontal drilling emerged in Texas during the 1980s, providing a means to reach previously inaccessible natural gas formations. Horizontal drilling involves the use of a flexible drilling pipe equipped with a steerable drill bit. By bending a vertical well at a designated depth, it becomes possible to drill horizontally through the natural gas deposit. 

Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," involves injecting fluid into the well at high pressure, causing the tight rock formations that contain the natural gas to fracture and release the gas. In Western Canada, much of the untapped natural gas is located in less permeable rock, such as shale, which is known as a "tight" formation. Hydraulic fracturing is a necessary process for extracting natural gas from such formations and is therefore referred to as "unconventional" natural gas extraction.3 

When a natural gas reserve has been designated for exploitation, negotiations with the landowner are conducted to obtain surface access rights, following which a team commences drilling activities. 

In cases where the natural gas reserve is situated in rock that is less porous, the process of hydraulic fracturing may be implemented to enhance the opening of the rock formations and enable the natural gas to flow to the surface. 

Once the natural gas is flowing unobstructedly, the drilling equipment is replaced with a wellhead that links to the collection pipelines responsible for transporting the natural gas to processing facilities. 

After extraction, natural gas is transported via gathering pipelines to processing plants commonly referred to as gas plants. At these facilities, the natural gas undergoes separation processes to remove any impurities, water, and gases like sulphur dioxide, resulting in a cleaner product. Additionally, some gas plants may also undertake the removal of natural gas liquids such as ethane, propane, and butane. 

Once the natural gas has been purified and processed, it is considered ready for distribution and use by consumers. 

Natural gas is transported safely from processing facilities to consumers through a vast network of pipelines. The larger pipelines, which frequently span across provincial borders, are known as transmission pipelines. 

Once it reaches the final destination, natural gas is distributed by local gas utilities or distribution companies to homes and businesses. It may also be stored in underground facilities to enable its use at a later time.4 

Handbook of Natural Gas and Transmission and Processing; Saeid Mokhatab, William A. Poe, James G. Speight

 https://www.capp.ca/natural-gas/drilling-and-fracturing/ 

To counter the effect of higher prices governments are looking for replacement alternatives like LNG. LNG stands for Liquified Natural Gas and can be transported by special ships on the ocean. 

To be able to offload the LNG from the ships the governments are trying to build special LNGinfrastructure, which is currently missing at many locations. But for that to happen the governmentsneed to put a lot more money into such projects.

Another option for the governments would be to stop the rising prices by controlling them and set a limit. However, this is not a great solution as it can cause several other problems economically, environmentally, and socially.

The best way though to fix the above-mentioned economic challenges is to do more research for other energy sources; preferably green energy (e.g., solar power, wind power, etc.). Additionally, research should try and find ways to replace materials which need natural gas as ingredient and/or in the production process. As well as more efficient way of the usage of natural gas. And lastly to secure that the supply chain does not get disrupted so much, there should be better planing and higher efficiency in drilling, transporting, and using of natural gas.

Nowadays the main use of transport natural gas is through large and long pipeline rails. These pipelines go through the whole of Europe from and to many different countries. The building of these pipelines causes destruction of habitats of wildlife As there is a lot of space needed for such pipelines, especially when they are above ground. This could lead to disruption of migration patters of animalsand other disturbances for the wildlife.

The drilling for natural gases can impact the wildlife and land where the drilling happens. Local ecosystems on and around such sites could collapse. Pollution of rivers, streams, and ground water;erosion of land leading mudslides; and pollutants are all side effects of natural gas production. Ifhydraulic fracking is used to get natural gas, it can cause earthquakes and bring local water suppliesinto imbalance. In the fracking prosses, cracks in stone layers with natural gas deposits below the earths’ surface are opened and widened by injecting water, chemicals, and sand at very high pressure. 

If the pipelines for transporting the natural gas are not built correctly, they can cause gas leaks which can lead to huge explosions. These explosions can kill animals and humans as well as and can pollutethe surrounding air for weeks make the place unliveable. Such leaks can also pollute rivers and lakes if the pipeline goes through such water bodies. If the rivers or lakes get too polluted, it has an adverse effect on fish and water animals which in the worst case can lead to animal extinctions. If the ground Water gets polluted, the humans might have no source of normal drinking water anymore. 

Another challenge lies in the entire process of producing natural gas, that there is a huge amount of grey energy used. Grey energy the energy used to produce for example the pipelines and the drilling equipment. The get this energy other energy sources are used (e.g., electricity, coal) which again can be very bad for human, animals as well as nature. Plus, the transport of liquified natural gas uses special ships which itself cause a lot of pollution.

To prevent the destruction of wildlife, land use, and eco-system. Companies and governments should do better planning as well as better execution to aspire to use less land. They should also increase the efficiency in producing and using natural gas. They could also replace the energy used with green energy. Both are already explained in the above section's economical challenges.

To prevent gas leaks the companies should build pipelines and drilling equipment with high quality. The governments should do more regular controls and have immediate repairs done. And additionalsolution would be to add more security checks. And for the use of fracking the best solution would beno fracking at all!

Every gas used in production or for energy is bad for the environment and makes it more difficult to decrease the human ecological footprint. However, natural gas is the most eco-friendly power source out of all the energy sources. It means that burning natural gas equals in fewer bad emissions into the atmosphere, like pollutant and CO2, of almost all types of other energy sources like petroleum to produce the same amount of energy.

And finally, the gas companies should always build the used land and sites back after using it. They should refill the holes and prepare the land like it used to be so wildlife can return

With the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on the 24.02.2021 this resulted in less gas deliveries to Europe afterwards. The subsequent sanctions that countries put on Russia caused declining living conditions for Russians in that western products were no longer available and replacements were only limited available or not available at all. And even worse with the war in Ukraine a lot of buildings and infrastructure, including gas pipelines that are damaged or collapsed. Therefore, there is much less homes available or innocent people died. Since the outbreak a lot of Ukrainians also do not longer have an occupation and the children have a hard time to be learning for school because their schools are destroyed or in danger. 

Because natural gas when burnt contributes a lot to our climate changed, there are a lot of activists out there which are against the use of natural gas. There are activists like for example Greta Thunberg, that are just trying to be heard. And then there are activists that try and use attacks, vandalism, gluing themselves to the ground, or organize and participate in demonstrations which can get out of control to show the adverse impact on the planet by using natural gas. 

There are many different things that can be done to prevent the adverse impact of using natural gas: for example, we could find alternative energy sources that are more environmentally friendly, or we could consume less of natural gas. In Switzerland we saved 12% natural gas in 2022 by just reducing the heat in the homes and the usage in productions.

Other countries will have to provide Ukraine aid and help rebuild their country and infrastructure. The biggest impact in Ukraine would be to stop the war!