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Anthony Brino's articles

Waterless Fracking Method Could Sidestep NY Gas Drilling Ban


Apr 16, 2012
Map of primary aquifers and Marcellus Shale extent in NY





Nov 14, 2011
A GasFrac well pad in Alberta, Canada

When Robert Lestz was a research engineer at Chevron in the 1990s, he began searching for a way to extract deeply buried gas and oil deposits without using the vast quantities of chemically enhanced water needed for hydraulic fracturing. The industry's increasing reliance on such large amounts of water seemed unsustainable, both economically and ecologically.

At first, Lestz experimented with nitrogen and liquid carbon dioxide. But he wasn't satisfied.

Then one night at home, while he was on the phone with a co-worker, his wife asked him to turn off the gas grill. "I said 'I got it.' My wife thought I was talking to her, but I was talking into the phone."

Lestz eventually developed a fracking process that substitutes propane, or liquid petroleum gas (LPG), for water. Chevron wasn't interested in LPG fracking, Lestz said. But in 2006, a business friend in Canada took the idea and started GasFrac, where Lestz is now the chief technology officer. Based in Calgary, Alberta, GasFrac is apparently the only company that offers LPG fracking. 

LPG's proponents say it is less environmentally intrusive than hydraulic fracking and that it also can be more profitable in the long run because it reduces infrastructure and waste. (Here's a story from InsideClimate News and the Albany Times-Union with more details about propane fracking.)

Fracking at Drinking Water Source for 80,000 Pennsylvanians Raises Alarms


Jul 19, 2011





