Brazilian court debates fracking for oil and gas

A high Brazilian court began debating Wednesday whether to authorize fracking for shale oil and gas deposits, an extraction technique for hard-to-reach reserves which is opposed by environmental advocates.

Fracking has been banned in France and Germany but in Latin America, Argentina and Chile allow it.

The technique has been used in thousands of Brazilian wells, but some states have passed local bans to prevent environmental damage, and the courts have blocked projects on similar grounds.

The decision expected from Brazil's Superior Court of Justice on October 8 will apply throughout the country.

The process of fracking involves injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to break up rock formations where oil or natural gas have accumulated.

Environmental damages and dangers posed by fracking include contamination of groundwater and the possibility of inducing earthquakes.

The case under review by the court dates back 12 years, when the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) auctioned off several unconventional deposits in western Sao Paulo state. The public prosecutor's office blocked their exploitation.

Brazil is the world's ninth largest crude oil exporter, and fracking is considered a new frontier by the country's oil industry, with ANP arguing current environmental regulations are sufficient.

But the public prosecutor's office warns "there are scientific uncertainties about serious and potentially irreversible risks" associated with fracking, and seeks to make it conditional on a "prior and robust study demonstrating its safety."

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Petrobras