A rush in fracking natural gas in the American West has led to Indian guar gum prices flapping upwards like those famous Beijing butterflies of chaos theory. Every American gas well that’s fracked requires about nine metric tons of guar gum, a viscous gel made from the guar bean. Guar gum—also used in ice cream and other foods—makes the “proppants” that are jammed into fractures in shale rocks more viscous and more slippery, which helps free more of the natural gas trapped in the rocks. As an excellent Reuters article explains, runaway demand for guar beans has ... Read More
