Halliburton Discloses Fracking Substances
Wheeling Intelligencer
16
November 2010
By Casey Junkins
NEW MARTINSVILLE - Petroleum services titan Halliburton Co. debuted a
new website Monday disclosing the chemicals used in the hydraulic
fracturing process, which the company pioneered in 1947.
The oil giant - at which former Vice President Dick Cheney served as
chief executive officer from 1995 to 2000 - has performed work in the
Marcellus Shale fields underlying both West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
"We are working in all the shale producing counties," said Halliburton
spokeswoman Teresa Wong, noting that drilling companies often employ
Halliburton's services to help with the fracturing, or "fracking,"
process.
Wong declined to name all Mountain State drillers enlisting
Halliburton's help, but she said one of them is EQT Corp., a firm the
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection lists as having
operations in Wetzel County.
Halliburton's new website - http://www.halliburton.com/hydraulicfracturing
-
allows users to find lists of chemicals the company uses for fracking.
Wong said the disclosure was not initiated by last week's U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency subpoena for fracturing chemical
information.
"We have been working in good faith with the EPA," Wong said, admitting
the new website does not answer all the federal regulators' questions.
"They asked for
about 50,000 documents, and we are really disappointed they chose to
subpoena us."
Fracking Chemicals
According to Halliburton, 98.47 percent of the material used for
fracking consists of water and sand, leaving just 1.53 percent for
other materials. Some of the
chemicals found in hydraulic fracturing fluid used by the company
include: formaldehyde, ammonium chloride, acetic anhydride, methanol,
hydrochloric acid and propargyl alcohol.
Information from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
lists formaldehyde as "reasonably anticipated to be a human
carcinogen." Most of the others, according to the website, are found in
common household products or
foods, such as shampoo, sunblock lotion, breakfast cereal and macaroni
and cheese.
"Halliburton has just made available new web pages to emphasize our
forthright disclosure of the additives and constituents that are used
for several typical wells in Pennsylvania. We believe this effort
represents an important and
substantive contribution to the broader long-term imperative of
transparency," said David Adams, vice president of Halliburton's
production enhancement product service
line, via news release.
Wong said the fracking chemical cocktail for West Virginia is just
slightly different than that for Pennsylvania because the shale is
different, noting the Mountain State information will be available as
soon as possible.
Fracking Process
"Halliburton pioneered fracturing technology more than 60 years ago,
but the safe and efficient use of this technology has never been more
important or in greater demand than it is right now,"Adams noted.
According to the website, almost 90 percent of onshore wells require
fracking.
The technique, "starts with a good bit of water and a lot of sand. Mix
those two together, apply a couple thousand pounds of pressure, and
introduce them to a reservoir several thousand feet below, often with
the help of a small
percentage of additives that aid in delivering that solution down the
hatch," the site notes.
The information shows the force of the water creates tiny fissures in
the impermeable rock. The water flow acts as a delivery mechanism for
the sand, which finds its way into the cracks to keep them open. This
creates pathways for the
previously trapped natural gas to escape. The entire process takes, on
average, three to 10 days to complete.
Halliburton Loophole
Republican strategist Karl Rove recently told gas industry leaders
during a conference in Pittsburgh that the newly elected GOP House will
ensure that the U.S. EPA will not be able to regulate fracking. U.S.
Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa.,
during this congressional session, introduced the "Fracturing
Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act" - more commonly known as
the FRAC Act - to allow the EPA
to oversee the process.
The so-called "Halliburton Loophole," a provision inserted into the
2005 energy law passed by Congress, exempts fracking from regulation
under the federal Clean Water Act. Currently, the West Virginia and
Pennsylvania Departments of
Environmental Protection are looking at ways they can help keep
fracking in check.