From the Houston Chronicle:

Panel requests data on fracturing

By TOM FOWLER Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Feb. 18, 2010, 10:13PM

A congressional committee is launching an investigation of hydraulic fracturing, the technique drillers use to unlock natural gas in shale formations, asking for data from eight companies that use the technology.

The House Commerce and Energy Committee sent the letters to three oil field services giants — BJ Services, Halliburton and Schlumberger — and five smaller companies, asking for information on the chemicals used in the process and its potential impact on health and the environment.

“Hydraulic fracturing could help us unlock vast domestic natural gas reserves once thought unattainable, strengthening America's energy independence and reducing carbon emissions,” said Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. “As we use this technology in more parts of the country on a much larger scale, we must ensure that we are not creating new environmental and public health problems.”

Hydraulic fracturing involves drilling into a formation and injecting water mixed with sand and chemicals under high pressure. The mixture cracks open the shale while the sand holds the fractures open, allowing the natural gas to flow more freely.

The chemicals make up less than 0.5 percent by volume of the overall mix but often include hazardous substances such as acids and materials used in cleaners and antifreeze.

Drillers have used hydraulic fracturing for decades, but it has been refined and become more commonplace recently as a cost-effective way to draw large quantities of natural gas from the many shale formations throughout the country.

Industry officials say the risks have been exaggerated and that the method often called “fracing” or “fracking” has yet to be directly linked to any incidents of drinking water contamination.

Jeff Smith, chief financial officer of BJ Services, said he appreciates Congress' concern but that it may have the wrong focus.

“It's the casing and cementing of a well that's critical,” Smith said, referring to the thousands of feet of steel pipe and cement that line a gas well. “Not only does it stabilize the well bore, it isolates the gas zone from aquifers so you don't have any migration of fluids or gas.”

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a 2004 report that hydraulic fracturing did not pose a significant threat to drinking water supplies, but the agency is expected to revisit the issue this year.

The EPA has requested $4.3 million in 2011 for hydraulic fracturing research.

Also on Thursday, Waxman said past data received from Halliburton and BJ Services indicates they used diesel fuel in their fracturing fluids between 2005 and 2007, possibly violating a voluntary agreement with the EPA to stop using diesel.

Smith said BJ Services told its operations to stop using diesel but that some inadvertently used it for a few jobs, the last one in 2007. BJ reported the incidents to the EPA and took measures to prevent recurrences.

Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann said in an e-mail that the agreement with the EPA only covered the use of diesel in fracturing jobs in coalbed methane formations and not other kinds of formations, such as shales.

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