In a previous thread I was asking about exploratory oil leases. Thanks again to everyone who participated in that thread. We now have much better offers but we're now trying to figure out the implications of what would happen if they were to actually try to produce (we don't expect that honestly).

My understanding is that the wells they would drill if they were to drill would be horizontal wells. I also understand that to get a horizontal well to produce, hydraulic fracturing is required. I've been doing some reading about hydraulic fracturing and I'm pretty stunned by the total volume of liquid required for hydraulic fracturing. Mind you, this is just Wikipedia information, but I'm reading that initial drilling can require 65,000 to 600,000 gallons of water and over the life of the well an additional 5 million gallons of water may be required. The water side of it isn't all that stunning to me. One of our smallest irrigation wells could pump 5 million gallons in 11 days. What does surprise me is that over 100,000 gallons of chemical additives may go in with that water over the life of the well to form the "fracturing fluid". It sounds like no one really knows all the chemicals that are used and what the implications of using them could be.

Another concern I have is the manner in which waste would be disposed of. An article in the Kansas City Star indicates that Kansas is maybe going to make it legal to spread the waste over the fields. This would probably mean spreading clay which likely has high concentrations of chloride. I don't have any idea what the typical quantities would be. If they were to try and spread 5 million gallons worth of waste on one of our fields I would imagine the traffic alone would cause quite a bit of damage.

Anyways, these are just a few concerns we have before we actually sign something. If anyone has any thoughts I would greatly appreciate them.