Hi all–
I want to note that the rocks in these areas are known to have been petroleum source rocks, but they have never been heavily exploited for oil or gas production. This means that petroleum formed in the rocks but apparently migrated elsewhere, perhaps during recent events of faulting and folding.
This means that whatever petroleum is in the rocks is widely distributed, as granular coatings, and pore and crack fillings (at best). It has to be released by human agency. The new move to develop the areas for oil and gas certainly requires fracking. It’s a sign that we have entered the desperation phase of domestic oil and gas production, which will end when the energy required for these extraction processes is equivalent to the energy content of what is extracted — or we might even go beyond that “break-even” point before it all ends.
Jane