Environmentalists Warn of 'Fracking' Risks in Mexico Victor Mayen - The News
go to original February 28, 2014

Fracking explained: opportunity or danger? (Kurzgesagt)

MEXICO CITY – Mexican environmentalists and oil industry specialists warned about the risks of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” an oil extraction technique pioneered in the United States that became possible in Mexico following last year’s energy reform.

Fracking consists of extracting hard-to-reach oil or natural gas deposits by fracturing the surrounding rock through the injection of water, but the technique has been criticized for contaminating aquifers and watersheds and for raising the risk of earthquakes by destabilizing subterranean rock formations.

At a forum on the environmental and social impact of fracking organized by the Belisario Domínguez Institute, Luca Ferrari from the Geoscience Center in Juriquilla, Querétaro reminded the audience that France has banned the technique after determining that the environmental cost was too high.

Aroa de la Fuente, a researcher at the Fundar Analysis and Research Center, said that the decision to begin fracking could represent a loss of 30 billion pesos ($2.3 billion) for state-run oil company Pemex, explaining that 80 percent of the oil deposits that have been fracked in the United States have turned out to be unviable.

National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Professor John Saxe Fernández warned that the adoption of fracking in Mexico could lead to the mass expropriations of small farms due to a rush of investors seeking to make a profit from previously-inaccessible oil and natural deposits.

See the original at The News

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