Replies to post #1009 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

[OT] More on Ed Markey (LOL): #msg-53819180.

[DewDiligence]

Companies Test Edible Fracking Ingredients

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576019851245386930.html

›DECEMBER 15, 2010
By RYAN DEZEMBER

HOUSTON—Oil and gas drilling companies are touting what they call new, environmentally friendly formulas—including ingredients used in processed foods and toothpaste—to quell fears that they are contaminating water supplies when they tap deep rock formations.

By pumping millions of gallons of chemical-laced water to crack open shale-rock formations, drillers can release large amounts of fossil fuels. But the technique, often called fracking, has led to worries about ground and surface water pollution.

Incidents of possible contamination of drinking wells in north Texas and Pennsylvania by natural gas extracted by fracking have triggered a public outcry and led to official investigations.

While no link has emerged between the contamination and fracking fluids, the Environmental Protection Agency and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have sought data from oil-field services companies detailing the chemicals in their fluids.

Oil-field services companies, including Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc., have resisted disclosing the ingredients of the products they use, but they are now on the hunt for fracking fluids that are clearly benign.

Houston-based Halliburton—the No. 1 shale driller in the U.S.—is rolling out a fracking-fluid product called CleanStim that it says consists exclusively of compounds used in processed foods. "The same components to make this stuff are used to make ice cream and brew beer," Jim Brown, Halliburton's Western Hemisphere president, said at a recent meeting with investors.

Baker Hughes last week launched a line of products called BJ SmartCare that lets well owners customize their fluids based on factors such as toxicity and flammability. It declined to specify what most of the ingredients are, but they include fatty acids, essential oils and guar gum, which is found in toothpaste and ketchup.

Drilling supplier Flotek Industries Inc. told analysts last month that it has completed successful field trials of a new batch of biodegradable fracturing chemicals using compounds extracted from citrus products. Calls to Houston-based Flotek for comment weren't returned.

Oil and gas producer Devon Energy Corp., which employs both Halliburton and Baker Hughes, has also begun to use some of the new products in its wells.

"The industry as a whole is going that way," said Chip Minty, a spokesman for Devon, which has substantial shale-gas operations in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

Halliburton said its CleanStim will add about 5% to 10% to drilling costs. Baker Hughes said its environmentally friendly products have a "minimal" impact on drilling costs.

The recent effort by Baker Hughes to offer cleaner chemicals includes substituting mineral oil for more noxious forms of petroleum, said Lindsay Link, who heads the Houston company's pressure-pumping business.

So far, Halliburton has tested CleanStim on 13 wells and has begun to offer it to customers. Mr. Oehler said that the cost of CleanStim will fall once it catches on and Halliburton can buy larger volumes of ingredients, such as maltodextrin, a sweetener and shower-gel component, and organic ester, which is found in liquid egg products and hairspray.

But Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel for the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy group, said that even though eliminating toxins from shale wells is a positive step, the risk of polluting ground water won't be eliminated.

He said fracking itself unleashes petroleum-like condensate from natural-gas reservoirs that could penetrate aquifers and spill into surface waters. Like the fracture fluids the government has studied, condensate also contains benzene, xylene, toluene and ethyl benzene.‹