Apache Corp is breaking the natural gas industry's addiction to oil for fuel to power hydraulic fracturing jobs. It is reportedly going to be the first company to do a complete frack job with engines running on natural gas.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/01/07/fracking-with-natural-gas-to-trim-fuel-costs-40/.
Frack jobs can each consume around 36,000 gallons of diesel and 700 million gallons per year. Diesel costs about $3.90 per gallon, making it much more expensive than natural gas. And using diesel is much dirtier than natural gas.
Using diesel for fracking is another example of our addiction to more expensive, dirtier oil. And we import about 40% of our oil needs to cap off the damage done by our oil addiction.
The Fuel Fix article above says Apache will cut its fuel bill by 40% in its natural gas-powered frack job and the industry as a whole could save 70% of its fuel cost by using field gas. The total estimated savings are put at $1.67 billion.
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