Arizona and fracking

About 10 Arizona wells have been test-fracked in the past 15 years for CO2, which is used as a form of enhanced oil recovery to stimulate aging oil wells in Texas and New Mexico. In 2012 the pipeline company KinderMorgan paid $30 million for fields rich in CO2 (and helium) near the town of St. Johns in eastern Arizona.

Fracking has yet to take place in the state for oil or gas, but exploration of the prospect is underway. Northeastern Arizona is part of the Mancos Shale, a 90-million-year-old, 60-billion-barrel formation spread under much of the West. Almost all of Arizona’s Mancos Shale is on the Navajo reservation, near the Navajo Generating Station in Page. Researchers say they don’t yet know if Arizona’s portion of the Shale contains shale oil, as "there is almost no data on the oil or gas potential of the Mancos in Arizona," according to the Arizona Geological Survey. The Navajo Nation Oil & Gas Company said in 2013 that it will seek a state permit from the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission to explore the Shale.

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 * United States and fracking

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