9.4

Question 1

What are the Exxon mobile cooperation building?

Answer 1

$4bn natural gas extraction facility on a flat marshy land

Question 2

What are the benefits of Exxon building this?

Answer 2

Produce 100,000 barrels of gas a day to export boosting the US economy

35bn ft^3 undiscovered gas in the North Slope (Alaska)

Provide jobs for workers

Question 3

What are the drawbacks of Exxons project?

Answer 3

Costs $4bn

remote location makes in expensive

Alaska takes a 25% share but invests money

Oil industry record tarnished by leaks and damage to the sensitive environment is hard to fix or clean up

Question 4

What is fracking and how popular is it in the US?

Answer 4

Drilling far down and pumping water, sand and chemicals at large volumes and pressure to release the shale gas in the rocks

39% of US’s natural gas
Created 2m jobs

Question 5

What does the Athabasca River have?

Answer 5

180bn barrels of tar sand (oil reserve form), bitumen which can be refined to petroleum.

Question 6

What environmental impacts will the tar sand extraction have?

Answer 6

Surface mining, clears vegetation, loss of local habitats

Large volumes of water needed, 6 barrels of water per barrel of bitumen. Extracted water from the river which threatens ecosystems and wildlife

Recovering the oil produces emissions

Leaks into river polluting the river

Question 7

What environmental impacts does fracking bring?

Answer 7

Contaminate groundwater supply, too high methane concentration

Gas enters people’s homes through the taps

Loss of habitat and wildlife.

Traffic increase due to bringing the water