This book presents a new fracturing technique that should be considered
as a potential alternative, or a companion technique, to hydraulic
fracturing of tight gas reservoirs and low permeability rock masses. As
opposed to hydraulic fracturing which generates a few numbers of large
cracks, electro-hydraulic fracturing induces diffuse micro-cracking and
fragmentation of rocks. Laboratory tests demonstrate that increases of
permeability by two orders of magnitude can be reached, without major
cracking in tested specimens. This book discusses the principles of this
new technique, reports experiments which have been developed is order to
prove the concept and finally describes the numerical model from which
the potentialities of this technique in representative reservoir
conditions can be assessed.