Should India go in for shales gas from hydraulic fracturing?

Should India go in for shales gas from hydraulic fracturing?

Across the world, Shales gas is being used increasingly by many countries in the replacement of oil and coal as these resources are turning scarce and expensive as well.

For:

- India being the 7th largest country in the world, the oil and gas deficiency is also huge, and in this scenario if we target the Shale oil and gas reserves then which are available in abundance, it would help in meeting the energy needs effectively
- India depends on Middle East countries for its oil and gas needs, which can be reduced if we start using Shales gas instead of hydraulic gases
- It will also help India in reviving its trade and financial accounts
- As per the findings, India has in abundance Shale Gas and Oil reserves almost amounting to 2/3rd of India’s current oil reserves and more than double its natural gas reserves
- Coal, that is known as a polluting agent will be consumed less with the advent of Shale Gas
- With continuous improvement in the technology, the environmental impairment will also reduce with time

Against:

- Shales gas is mined through the Fracking technology (that is hydrochloric acid water, sand and carcinogens are pumped into the dense shale rock formation to release the gas) which will contaminate the adjoining surroundings by causing detrimental effects to the civilization through ground water
- In India the conservational laws being frail, the Fracking technology could be extremely dangerous
- Fracking consumes enormous water as well as discharging the waste water, leading to scarcity of water resources in the long run
- Shales gas would be expensive as the social and environmental costs are huge
- Soil sagging is also a common problem with the Shale gas technology and hence is banned in quite a few countries

Conclusion:

- An exhaustive and in-depth study should be done so as to determine what would be the side effects of producing shales gas and is it worth to go ahead with those side effects and then should we decide to go for Shales gas or not
- Also we should first see how much reserves and what are the other alternatives as well that could be used instead of using Shales gas.