From the WSJ

Oil-field service company Baker Hughes Inc.BHI -0.98% said minor formatting tweaks to an online form at FracFocus.com will allow it to fully spell out all the chemicals it uses to help coax out oil and gas out of the ground.

Baker Hughes is one of the largest oil-field services companies in the world, competing with the likes of Halliburton Co.HAL +0.30% and Schlumberger Ltd.SLB +0.08% It often has stopped short of naming chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process when it reports to FracFocus, the online national registry where the public can look up well details in several states.

Some companies, though not all, have resisted greater transparency around fracking fluids, citing trade secret protections. Baker Hughes said FracFocus’s new format lets companies list individual chemicals used in wells without linking them directly to specific mixtures of compounds with trade names. That way, the company said, it’s clear what’s gone down a well, but competitors won’t be able to figure out the ratios and recipes Baker Hughes has used to create its own fluids. Decoupling ingredients will sufficiently protect Baker Hughes and its energy customers operations, the company said, calling the new policy “a balance that increases public trust while encouraging commercial innovation.”

From The Hill

The Environmental Protection Agency is taking the first steps toward regulations that could require companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” operations.

The EPA issued an advance notice of proposed rule-making Friday in response to a petition filed in 2011 by the environmental group Earthjustice and more than 100 other green organizations pressing for mandatory testing and reporting rules. 

The groups have raised concerns over various chemicals used during the fracking process, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground in order to fracture rock and unlock trapped oil and gas.

The EPA, still in the early stages of the process, said it had made no decision whether to issue regulations, call for voluntary disclosure or some combination of the two. 

Rather, the agency stressed in a notice filed with the Office of Management and Budget that it is merely putting out a call for feedback from those involved and interested parties and “is not committing to a specific rulemaking outcome.”

“EPA anticipates that States, industry, public interest groups, and members of the public will be participants in the process,” the agency said. “The stakeholder process will bring stakeholders together to discuss the information needs and help EPA to ensure any reporting burdens and costs are minimized, ensuring information already available is considered in order to avoid duplication of efforts.”

In particular, the EPA is looking at how disclosure rules might be reconciled with trade secrets or data deemed to be proprietary or confidential business information.

The agency is also asking for ideas about possible incentives or recognition programs that could support the use of safer chemicals in fracking, which, while contentious, is helping to usher in a domestic energy production boom.

Read more: http://thehill.com/regulation/205705-epa-weighs-disclosure-rule-for...