Hydraulic fracturing pumps many thousands of gallons of mainly water and sand, with a few chemicals, at high pressure into tight gas-bearing shale deposits (hardened muds), creating cracks that allow gas to flow back up the well to the surface ( Shale Shock).

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Another early beneficiary might be Carbo Ceramics, which sells ceramic pellets the size of grains of sand that are pumped into the rock surrounding the wells to prop open the tiny cracks through which oil and gas flow.

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To do so, fracking actually cracks the rock to allow for the natural gas to flow from the shale into the well.

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