ABC: Mid West gas: The future of fracking in our region

Traditional gas extraction has occurred throughout the Mid West gas fields since the 1970s.

In more recent years however companies have been exploring local deposits of more unconventional gas types, like shale and tight gas.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is a method of extracting these gas types from rock reservoirs using a combination of high pressured water, chemicals and sand.

After submitting mandatory proposals to the state government, several gas companies have undertaken fracking operations in the Mid West.

Phil Gorey is the Executive Director of the Department of Mines and Petroleum and expects that there will be more proposals with a number of exploration projects currently underway throughout the region.

He says that while the traditional method of fracking has been used around the world for over 60 years, the process being used currently in WA, a combination of fracking with horizontal drilling, is no older than a decade.  MORE