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Search for nearby well sites that have been hydraulically fractured to see what chemicals were used in the process.
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FracFocus is continuing to evolve and expand its performance and versatility by providing more than a dozen enhancements including:
• Expand the public’s ability to search records
• Improve data accuracy
• Provide extraction of data in a “machine readable” format
• Update educational information on chemical use, oil & gas production and potential environmental impactsThese upgrades will be designed to dramatically enhance the site’s functionality for the public, state regulatory agencies and industry users.
Adding more participating companies and reported wells from across the country, FracFocus’ continued success is the result of state and federal government agencies and the oil and natural gas industry to provide public transparency.
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This technique uses a specially blended liquid which is pumped into a well under extreme pressure causing cracks in rock formations underground. These cracks in the rock then allow oil and natural gas to flow, increasing resource production.
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Casing is the multiple layers of steel and cement inside the drilled hole used to protect water aquifers. The specific length, thickness, strength and composition of casing is regulated at the state level.
Illustration Courtesy of the Texas Oil & Gas Association.
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Use the interactive map to find regulations per state as well as contact information for groundwater protection and oil and natural gas production.
FracFocus machine-readable data now available!
FracFocus is pleased to announce the release of disclosure data to the public in machine-readable (SQL) format.
By clicking the button below you may download a ZIP file that contains a copy of the disclosure database.
More About Chemical Data »
Groundwater Protection: Priority Number One
Oil and natural gas producers have stringent requirements for how wells must be completed. The genesis of these requirements is water safety.
Casing is the first line of defense used to protect freshwater aquifers.
More About Groundwater Protection »
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What happens to chemicals after they are pumped downhole?
Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturng are often transformed or degraded by their interaction with formations and formation fluids. For many chemicals of concern a recent presentation made by Dr. Angus McGrath of the environmental consulting company Stantec entitled "Fate and Transport of Select Compounds of Interest in Fracing Fluids" describes the fate of chemicals. It is available on the USEPA website at
http://www.epa.gov/hfstudy/fateandtransportofselectcompoundsofinterestinfracingfluids.pdf
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The operator name on the well list does not match the name of the operator on the fracturing record. Can you tell me why?
The name of the operator on the well list is based on the name used to register the company in the FracFocus system. However, companies sometimes operate through subsidiaries. For example Anadarko Petroleum Corporation purchased Kerr Mcgee and still operates wells under the Kerr Mcgee name. Regardless of the name of the operator on the fracturing record the operator name on the list reflects the name of the FracFocus participating company.
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What is Hydraulic Fracturing?
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracing, is the process of creating small cracks, or fractures, in underground geological formations to allow natural gas to flow into the wellbore and on to the surface where the gas is collected and prepared for sale to a wide variety of consumers.
During the fracing process, a mixture of water, sand and other chemical additives designed to protect the integrity of the geological formation and enhance production is pumped under high pressure into the shale formation to create small fractures.
The newly created fractures are “propped” open by the sand, which allows the natural gas to flow into the wellbore where it is collected at the surface and subsequently delivered to a wide range group of consumers. Read more...
