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Description of the Material: The FracFocus chemical disclosure registry provides public disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemical additives used in nearly 50,000 wells by over 600 companies in the United States. The large number of well sites that have been entered into the registry present a rich population of hydraulic fracturing jobs over a wide geographic area and spanning a period of more than two years. This paper will review the structure of FracFocus and how the system works, discuss industry’s experience in working with the system, and present selected analyses of that data showing how the volume of fluids and the number and type of additives vary by company, by region and play, and even within plays. Application/Development: ALL Consulting developed and manages the FracFocus database and web site. The company has dedicated considerable resources to assess the quality of the data in FracFocus and convert submittals to a database format. ALL has used the resulting data to analyze a variety of research questions about hydraulic fracturing and related environmental concerns and public disclosure issues. Results, Observations, Conclusions: This paper will demonstrate the use of the FracFocus data to investigate a number of questions concerning hydraulic fracturing, including: water use trends across plays, among plays, among companies, and over time; chemical makeup of fracturing jobs, again within and between plays, among companies, and over time; geographic distributions of disclosures (where are submissions being made?); company distributions of disclosures (who is making them?); the use of proprietary or trade secret designations in FracFocus; the use of green chemicals; and whether fracture fluid “recipes” are converging over time within plays or within a given company. Significance of the Subject Matter: The analysis of the data from FracFocus can help bring a scientific approach to addressing many of the concerns expressed by the public, NGOs, and regulatory agencies regarding hydraulic fracturing. These issues include: water use; the number and variety of chemicals used in fracturing fluids and the risk associated with them; and how these factors have changed over the two-year history of FracFocus.
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