Drilling-services company to reveal fracking chemicals

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The drilling-services company Baker Hughes on Wednesday implemented a policy of disclosing all of the chemicals used in its fracking operations.

Environmental groups and local communities for years have been pushing for full disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique also known as fracking.

In response, the oil and gas industry set up an online database that lists many of the chemicals but held back crucial information on certain chemicals and the amounts used on the grounds that it would provide competitors with trade secrets.

Baker Hughes said that starting Wednesday it will not withhold any information on those grounds. It first announced the policy earlier this year.

“Introducing greater transparency about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process and protecting the ability to innovate are not conflicting goals,” said Derek Mathieson, Baker Hughes chief strategy officer, in a statement.

The company says that for every fracturing job performed by the company, it will disclose a list of all the chemical constituents of the products used and their maximum concentrations through the industry-maintained website fracfocus.org.