New Proposal on Fracking Gives Ground to Industry

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday issued a proposed rule governing hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on public lands that will for the first time require disclosure of the chemicals used in the process.

But in a significant concession to the oil industry, companies will have to reveal the composition of fluids only after they have completed drilling — a sharp change from the government’s original proposal, which would have required disclosure of the chemicals 30 days before a well could be started.

The pullback on the rule followed a series of meetings at the White House after the original regulation was proposed in February. Lobbyists representing oil industry trade associations and individual major producers like ExxonMobil, XTO Energy, Apache, Samson Resources and Anadarko Petroleum met with officials of the Office of Management and Budget, who reworked the rule to address industry concerns about overlapping state regulations and the cost of compliance.

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Interior Department floats new fracking rules

The Obama administration has moved to force oil and gas operators to gain prior approval before fracking on federal land and disclose the fluids they use.

Under proposed rules released Friday by the Interior Department, frackers must also submit reports to ensure water sources are being protected.

The rules would apply only to federal and tribal land while the vast majority of fracking operations occur on private land. But this rule, along with last month’s EPA air quality standards for oil and gas operations that use hydraulic fracturing, was a highly anticipated look at how the Obama administration would treat the natural gas industry.

Under the proposed rule, operators would need to:

• Get prior approval before beginning fracking operations as a part of the application for a permit to drill. For wells already permitted but not fracked when the rule goes into effect or wells where the approval is more than five years old, operators would submit a report on the fracking plan for approval by the Bureau of Land Management before beginning the hydraulic fracturing process. Wells that are at least five years old would be reviewed promptly to eliminate any delay in operations.

• Submit additional information on the geological formations they are operating within and the specifications of the wells being drilled to ensure that water sources are being protected.

• Submit a disposal plan for recovered fluids for prior approval, along with estimates of how much fluid will be recovered.

• Conduct mechanical integrity tests to ensure that the wells can sustain the pressures expected during fracking.

• Store recovered fluids in tanks or lined pits, as is the current industry recommended practice.

After fracking operations have been completed, the operator would need to submit actual totals of fracking fluids used and the composition of fluids to BLM.

The chemical name, purpose and the amount used must be disclosed to BLM, and that information would be posted on a public website. BLM is working to integrate the information into FracFocus.org, an existing fluid disclosure website.

BLM would also reserve the right to request any additional information about well stimulation activities at any point, according to the rule.

Operators would still have to comply with any state or local regulations related to hydraulic fracturing.

A 60-day comment period will begin once the rule is published in the Federal Register.

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