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.