Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids

Hydraulic fracturing fluids are comprised of a combination of water, sand and chemicals that are injected at high pressure into a well to initiate and to expand fractures in the shale rock.

The graphic below from FracFocus.org shows typical additives used in fracking fluids:

Frac Focus Average HF Fluid


FracFocus

A good website to learn about hydraulic fracturing fluids is www.FracFocus.org, which is a joint effort between the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.  That website has been established to list, by well, each chemical used in hydraulic fracturing in wells drilled on or after January 1st, 2011.

"The make�]up of fracturing fluid varies from one geologic basin or formation to another.

"Evaluating the relative volumes of the components of a fracturing fluid reveals the relatively small volume of additives that are present. The additives depicted on the right side of the pie chart represent less than 0.8% of the total fluid volume. Overall the concentration of additives in most slickwater fracturing fluids is a relatively consistent 0.5% to 2% with water making up 98% to 99.2%.

"Because the make�]up of each fracturing fluid varies to meet the specific needs of each area, there is no one�]size�]fits�]all formula for the volumes for each additive."  FracFocus.org

All information in the FracFocus.org database is collected from oil and gas operations around the country on a voluntary basis.  (Source: Colorado Oil and Gas Association)


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