Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Distributions and 

Treatment Fluids, Additives, Proppants, and Water Volumes 

Applied to Wells Drilled in the United States from 1947 

through 2010

Data Series 868

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing 

Distributions and Treatment Fluids, 

Additives, Proppants, and Water Volumes 

Applied to Wells Drilled in the United 

States from 1947 through 2010

By Tanya J. Gallegos and Brian A. Varela

Data Series 868

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Department of the Interior

SALLY JEWELL, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey

Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2015

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as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner.

Suggested citation:

Gallegos, T.J., and Varela, B.A., 2015, Data regarding hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, 

proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010: U.S. Geological 

Survey Data Series 868, 11 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds868.

ISSN 2327-638x (online)
iii

Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................................................................1

Overview..........................................................................................................................................................1

Purpose...................................................................................................................................................1

Hydraulic Fracturing in Brief...............................................................................................................1

Using the Data.......................................................................................................................................2

Original Data Sources and Processing Steps...........................................................................................2

Data Source...........................................................................................................................................2

Hydraulic Fracturing Data Selection .................................................................................................2

Stages ....................................................................................................................................................3

Hydraulic Fracturing Data Extraction................................................................................................3

FRAC/REFRAC TRTM_TYPE Attributes..............................................................................................3

Hydraulic Fracturing Treatment Fluid Volume Data Selection ......................................................4

Temporal Aggregation of Hydraulic Fracturing Data......................................................................4

Spatial Aggregation of Hydraulic Fracturing Data..........................................................................4

Data Series Spreadsheets—Definitions and Attributes .........................................................................5

Volumes ..................................................................................................................................................5

Distributions...........................................................................................................................................5

Treatments .............................................................................................................................................6

Wells ....................................................................................................................................................6

Keys ....................................................................................................................................................6

Field Names—Definitions, Data Types, and Descriptions ......................................................................6

Links to Spatial Files Used............................................................................................................................7

Disclaimers and Limitations.........................................................................................................................7

Disclaimer..............................................................................................................................................7

Disclaimer for a Provisional Data Series .........................................................................................8

Limitations .............................................................................................................................................8

Acknowledgments.........................................................................................................................................8

References Cited............................................................................................................................................9

Appendix 1. Manufacturers of Products and Services Mentioned .................................................11

Tables

1. Typographical format for database terms mentioned in the text .........................................2
iv

Conversion Factors

Multiply By To obtain

Volume

cubic meter (m3

) 6.290 barrel (petroleum, 1 barrel = 42 gal)

cubic meter (m3

) 264.2 gallon (gal) 

cubic meter (m3

) 0.0002642 million gallons (Mgal) 

cubic meter (m3

) 35.31 cubic foot (ft3)

cubic meter (m3

) 1.308 cubic yard (yd3) 

cubic meter (m3

) 0.0008107 acre-foot (acre-ft) 
Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Distributions and 

Treatment Fluids, Additives, Proppants, and Water 

Volumes Applied to Wells Drilled in the United States from 

1947 through 2010

By Tanya J. Gallegos and Brian A. Varela

Abstract

Comprehensive, published, and publicly available data 

regarding the extent, location, and character of hydraulic 

fracturing in the United States are scarce. The objective of this 

data series is to publish data related to hydraulic fracturing in 

the public domain. The spreadsheets released with this data 

series contain derivative datasets aggregated temporally and 

spatially from the commercial and proprietary IHS database 

of U.S. oil and gas production and well data (IHS Energy, 

2011). These datasets, served in 21 spreadsheets in Microsoft 

Excel (.xlsx) format, outline the geographical distributions of 

hydraulic fracturing treatments and associated wells (including 

well drill-hole directions) as well as water volumes, proppants, 

treatment fluids, and additives used in hydraulic fracturing 

treatments in the United States from 1947 through 2010. 

This report also describes the data—extraction/aggregation 

processing steps, field names and descriptions, field types and 

sources. An associated scientific investigation report (Gallegos 

and Varela, 2014) provides a detailed analysis of the data 

presented in this data series and comparisons of the data and 

trends to the literature.

Overview

This data series contains a derivation of data from the 

larger commercial IHS database of U.S. production and 

well data (IHS Energy, 2011) to which the U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) subscribes. The original IHS database, as 

received by the USGS, includes records of about 1.8 million 

hydraulic fracturing treatments and about 1 million 

hydraulically fractured wells drilled from 1947 through 2010. 

This report presents the details regarding the selection and 

processing of hydraulic fracturing data from the proprietary 

source (IHS Energy, 2011), the data review process, the 

creation of temporally and spatially aggregated data tables 

(21 spreadsheets) to be released to the public through this 

data series, and a complete description of each field within 

each spreadsheet.

Purpose

The intent of this data series is to contribute data on 

hydraulic fracturing to the public domain to help improve 

the understanding of the current and historical character and 

occurrence of hydraulic fracturing in the United States on a 

broad, national scale. 

Hydraulic Fracturing in Brief

This section provides a brief description of the overall 

hydraulic fracturing process and related characteristics placed 

into the context of the table/spreadsheet and field element 

names from both the IHS database and this data series. Note 

that terms from the IHS database are set in all capital letters: 

table names are underlined, field names (column headings) 

are in plain format, and attributes (table entries) are set in 

italic. Terms from the datasets released with this data series 

are set in all capital letters and in bold: spreadsheet names 

are underlined, field names (column headings) are simply 

bold, and attributes (table entries) are set in italic. See 

table 1 for examples of the format used to identify table/

spreadsheet terms.

Hydraulic fracturing is one of several different reservoir 

stimulation methods used in the United States to increase 

oil and gas production from low-permeability reservoirs 

(such as tight sands, coal beds, shale) and, in some cases, 

to remove damage (for example, scale or paraffin deposited 

within the wellbore during drilling and (or) production). 

Hydraulic fracturing treatments are applied to wells drilled 

with horizontal (H), vertical (V), and directional (D) drill-hole 

(borehole) orientations (HOLE_DIRECTION), as defined 

in the original IHS database; in reality, however, actual 
2 Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Distributions Applied to Wells Drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010

Table 1. Typographical format for database terms mentioned in the text.

Table/spreadsheet names Field names (column headings) Attributes (table entries)

IHS database Capitalized Underlined Capitalized Capitalized Italicized

ex.: WELL_TREATMENT ex.: TRTM_ TYPE ex.: FRAC

DS 868 datasets Capitalized Bold Underlined Capitalized Bold Capitalized Bold Italicized

ex.: FRAC_ADDITIVE ex.: ADDITIVE_TYPE ex.: FRAC

drill-hole directions include a spectrum of these orientations. 

The current practice for a single-stage hydraulic fracturing 

operation (FRAC or REFRAC TRTM_TYPE) consists of a 

series of sequenced substages, commonly including a number 

of different treatment fluid types (TRTM_FLUID_TYPE); for 

example: (1) ACID, followed by (2) one or more sequences 

of a fracturing fluid (mostly WATER that could include 

FOAM, OIL, SLICK WATER, and (or) GEL, etc.) mixed with 

a proppant (AGENT_TYPE, such as SAND, etc.) and an 

additive (ADDITIVE_TYPE, such as GELLING AGENT, 

ACID, CROSSLINKING AGENTS, and (or) SURFACTANT, 

etc.), followed by (3) a freshwater flush (for example, WATER) 

(Arthur and others, 2008). 

This data series provides temporally aggregated data on 

hydraulic fracturing treatments (FRAC_TRTM_TYPE) and 

1. treatment characteristics such as the use of hydraulic 

fracturing treatment fluids (FRAC_TRTM_FLUID), 

additives (FRAC_ADDITIVE), proppants (FRAC_

PROPPANT), water-based treatment fluid volumes 

(WATER-BASED_VOL_PER_WELL_1-99_

PERCENTILE), and drill-hole directions of wells 

to which the treatments are applied (FRAC_HOLE_

DIRECTION); 

2. hydraulically fractured well characteristics such as drillhole direction (FRAC_WELL_HOR_DIR, FRAC_

WELL_VERT) and final status or intent of well (FRAC_

WELL_FINAL_STATUS; for example, OIL WELL or 

GAS WELL); and

3. the spatial distributions of locations of both hydraulic 

fracturing treatments and associated wells spudded 

in the United States from 1947 through 2010, as a 

function of SPUD_YEAR (initial drill year) and state 

(FRAC_WELL_STATE and FRAC_TREAT_STATE), 

hydrologic unit code (FRAC_WELL_HUC_US, 

FRAC_WELL_HUC_AK, FRAC_TREAT_HUC_US, 

and FRAC_TREAT_HUC_AK), and geologic province 

(FRAC_TREAT_GEO_PROV_5k_00-10). 

Using the Data

This data series can be accessed at http://dx.doi.

org/10.3133/ds868. This Web page provides links to this 

document, in portable document format (.pdf), and to 

a “Downloads directory” that contains the data tables 

(spreadsheets), in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format, organized 

into five subdirectories. Report files can be accessed through 

Internet Explorer or another supported Internet browser and 

Acrobat Reader 7.0 or higher.

Original Data Sources and 

Processing Steps

Data Source

The original source of the data is the commercial and 

proprietary IHS database of U.S. production and well data 

(IHS Energy, 2011).

Hydraulic Fracturing Data Selection

Two standard tables within the original IHS database 

(IHS Energy, 2011) were used to extract hydraulic fracturing 

related data: the WELL_TREATMENT and WELL tables. 

The WELL_TREATMENT table describes the various [well 

stimulation] treatment (TRTM: ACID, acid; BDA, breakdown 

acid; BKDN, breakdown fluid; FLSH, flush; NTRL, natural; 

REACID, re-acidization; TRET, treatment; U, unreported 

treatment; FRAC, fracturing; and REFRAC, refracturing) jobs 

performed during the life of a well (IHS Energy, 2011). All of 

these TRTM_TYPEs, except for FRAC and REFRAC, could 

be indicative of a number of different types of well stimulation 

treatments not necessarily related to hydraulic fracturing (such 

as acidizing jobs to remove damage occurring during drilling 

and (or) production, or another completion step such as well 

back-flushing to clean sediments and acid from the well bore).
Original Data Sources and Processing Steps 3

Generally, the use of a proppant to hold open the fractures 

is unique to hydraulic fracturing (Elbel and Britt, 2000). The 

correlation of greater than 99 percent of reported propping 

agents with FRAC/REFRAC stimulation treatment types 

lends credence to the use of FRAC/REFRAC treatment types 

to indicate hydraulic fracturing. Therefore, only the records 

showing FRAC or REFRAC in the TRTM_TYPE column from 

the original IHS database WELL_TREATMENT table (IHS 

Energy, 2011) were queried to most clearly indicate wells in 

which hydraulic fracturing treatments had been conducted 

during completion. As such, this data series pertains only to 

the hydraulic fracturing treatments and associated wells and 

does not address other stimulation treatments or other well 

drilling, well completion, or post-completion steps (oil/gas/

water production, storage, disposal, etc.).

Stages

Horizontal well completions require multiple stages 

because it is difficult to maintain pressures sufficient to 

induce fractures over the complete length of a lateral leg 

(Arthur and others, 2008). In the original IHS database 

(IHS Energy, 2011), a single unique well may have one or 

more hydraulic fracturing or refracturing (FRAC/REFRAC) 

treatments (TRTM) associated with it, each consisting of 

a unique treatment fluid (TRTM_FLUID). Therefore, each 

FRAC/REFRAC TRTM_TYPE record could define either a 

complete single stage or a substage, depending on whether (1) 

the data were entered separately for each substage as a FRAC/

REFRAC TRTM_TYPE, (2) the data were entered collectively 

as a single FRAC/REFRAC TRTM_TYPE, or (3) other 

stimulation treatment types were considered as part of the 

scope of the hydraulic fracturing operation. This information 

is not known because the data were recorded, compiled, and 

reported by others (IHS Energy, 2011). Ideally, the STAGE 

or TRTM_OBS_NO columns in the original IHS database 

WELL_TREATMENT table (IHS Energy, 2011) would 

provide direct information regarding the stage of the hydraulic 

fracturing treatment or interval that could be used to indirectly 

ascertain the stage. These columns, however, are not populated 

with data. Therefore, multiple stages are not distinguished in 

this data series—only the total number of FRAC/REFRAC

treatment (TRTM_TYPE) records applied to a given well for 

a given treatment fluid type (TRTM_FLUID_TYPE).

Hydraulic Fracturing Data Extraction

Inasmuch as a single well could have multiple FRAC/

REFRAC records, the WELL_TREATMENT table has 

a primary key comprising multiple attributes, one of 

which is a foreign key to the WELL table. Therefore, 

the WELL_TREATMENT table was queried to return 

only the records with a given stimulation treatment type 

(TRTM_TYPE) of FRAC or REFRAC (hydraulic fracturing 

treatments). It was assumed that each FRAC/REFRAC record 

listed in the WELL_TREATMENT table represents a single 

hydraulic fracturing treatment; therefore, each reference to a 

“treatment” in the text is actually a reference to a “record.”

The WELL table has only one record for each well 

and uses a single attribute primary key. Once all the queried 

FRAC/REFRAC records were compiled, the relation of the 

WELL table to the WELL_TREATMENT table (such as 

“one-to-many”) was invoked to also get information from the 

WELL table, as described below.

FRAC/REFRAC TRTM_TYPE Attributes

The FRAC/REFRAC TRTM_TYPE records from the 

original IHS database WELL_TREATMENT table were 

associated with a UWI or unique well identifier in the WELL

table (IHS Energy, 2011). The UWIs are not disclosed in 

this data series (as per USGS agreements with IHS, Inc.) but 

are used to obtain (1) the well latitude and longitude (PI_

SURFACE_LAT and PI_SURFACE_LONG) for grouping/

aggregating the wells and treatment records within a given 

area (state, hydrologic unit, geologic province); (2) the initial 

drill year (spud year as SPUD_DATE) and (or) the year that 

the well is ready to produce oil or gas (completion year as 

PI_COMP_DATE); (3) the associated drill-hole (borehole) 

direction (HOLE_DIRECTION); and (4) the intent of the well 

(final status as FINAL_STATUS, such as OIL WELL or GAS 

WELL) to which the hydraulic fracturing treatment is applied. 

After merging all the information, six records without a spud 

date were removed, inasmuch as the temporal analysis was 

based on the start date of drilling operations. Removal of these 

wells is not expected to affect the final statistical summary. 

Using this master table, subqueries were created to analyze 

each hydraulic fracturing treatment or hydraulically fractured 

well attribute individually.

Although a single unique well could have multiple 

FRAC/REFRAC treatment records, each FRAC/REFRAC

record may have the following unique attributes: proppant 

(AGENT_TYPE), treatment fluid type (TRTM_FLUID_

TYPE), treatment fluid volume (TRTM_AMOUNT), and (or) 

additive (ADDITIVE_TYPE). Not every attribute had a value 

for every FRAC/REFRAC record, so each attribute analysis 

had a different sample size. The number of records of each of 

these reported attributes—including treatment fluid, additive, 

and proppant types and associated well attributes such as 

final status and drill-hole directions—were summed for a 

given spud year to construct the derivative datasets published 

in this data series, based on the original IHS database (IHS 

Energy, 2011).
4 Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Distributions Applied to Wells Drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010

Hydraulic Fracturing Treatment Fluid Volume 

Data Selection

Water-based treatment fluid volumes (TRTM_AMT) 

reported in each FRAC/REFRAC treatment record for waterbased treatment fluid types (TRTM_FLUID_TYPE) were 

converted to common units of cubic meters, m3 (CUM). Fluid 

volume data that were reported in units of volume (TRTM_

UNIT) lacking standard conversion definitions or that did not 

have sufficient information to convert to cubic meters (such as 

FOOT, HOLE, or SACK) were not included in these analyses. 

The total water volume per well was obtained by summing 

the volumes of the top 99 percent of all presumed water-based 

treatment fluid types applied to a given well, reported per era, 

as follows:

• 1947–1952: WATER, ACID, FRACTURING, FLUID, 

SAND GEL FRAC;

• 1953–1999: WATER, MY-T-FRAC, ACID, 

FRACTURING, SAND GEL FRAC, SAND ACID 

FRAC; and

• 2000–2010: WATER, FLUID, GEL, SLICK WATER, 

CROSSLINK GEL, ACID.

Temporal Aggregation of Hydraulic 

Fracturing Data

Ideally, the date of the hydraulic fracturing treatment 

would be listed in the IHS database (IHS Energy, 2011) 

WELL_TREATMENT table, in the TRTM_START_DATE 

column. This column, however, is not populated with data. 

Because hydraulic fracturing takes place at some time between 

the well spud date (SPUD_DATE) and the completion date 

(PI_COMP_DATE), either of these dates could be used 

to reasonably estimate the date of the FRAC/REFRAC

treatments. In this data series, the FRAC/REFRAC treatment 

years were derived by associating the treatments with the 

spud year of the well rather than the completion year for 

several reasons:

• the completion year differed from the spud year by no 

more than one year in 98.5 percent of the wells;

• although the well completion date might refer to 

hydraulic fracturing activities, it could also possibly 

refer to a number of other post-drilling activities; the 

spud date consistently represents the initiation of well 

drilling and is considered unique;

• more data points (approximately 4,400) were available 

for the spud year than for the completion year, thus 

allowing for examination of a larger dataset; and

• the possibility exists that although the well was 

fractured, the well completion may not have 

been finalized, which might explain why the final 

completion date was not reported in some cases.

Data were aggregated temporally over time periods 

between 1947 (the year hydraulic fracturing was first applied; 

Montgomery and Smith, 2010) and 2010 (the date of the 

extent of data availability at the time of compilation) (IHS 

Energy, 2011). The original IHS database (IHS Energy, 2011) 

contains approximately 38,903 treatment records associated 

with well spud years earlier than 1947. These FRAC/REFRAC

treatment records (1) may have been associated with wells 

fractured using methods other than hydraulic fracturing, (2) 

may be wells that were originally spudded prior to 1947 

and hydraulically fractured at a later date, or (3) may have 

erroneous spud dates. Because these distinctions cannot 

be made using these data, the aggregation of data strictly 

pertaining to hydraulic fracturing is best represented in 

wells with spud dates from 1947 onward, which was the 

first year that hydraulic fracturing is thought to have been 

used to stimulate oil and gas production (Montgomery and 

Smith, 2010).

Spatial Aggregation of Hydraulic 

Fracturing Data

The hydraulically fractured well locations (sorted by 

drill dates and (or) drill-hole directions) were aggregated 

spatially within USGS hydrologic units,1 states, and geologic 

provinces. Distribution counts were created by first overlaying 

each unique well location (latitude/longitude) on one of the 

following polygon boundary shape files:

• 1:250,000-scale Hydrologic Units of the United States 

(by USGS 8-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC)),

• ArcGIS layer of states in the United States, including 

the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto 

Rico, and

• Geologic Provinces of the United States (as defined 

for the USGS National Oil and Gas Resource 

Assessment Project).

At the onset of the spatial analysis, the ESRI2 base 

map was referenced to the 1984 World Geodetic System 

(WGS 84), the IHS data locations were referenced to the 

1927 North American Datum (NAD 27), the HUC-8 polygons 

were referenced to the Albers NAD 27 datum (lower 

48 states) and the Clark 1866 Albers datum (Alaska), and 

the Geologic Province polygons were referenced to the 1983 

North American Datum (NAD 83). Prior to analysis, all data 

1

A USGS hydrologic unit used is essentially a cataloging unit, which is 

the smallest geographic area in the hydrologic unit hierarchy and represents 

part or all of a surface drainage basin, a combination of drainage basins, or a 

distinct hydrologic feature, typically a specific stream or river watershed or a 

part of a larger river watershed.

2

See appendix 1 for ESRI contact information.
Data Series Spreadsheets—Definitions and Attributes 5

(except for the base map) were re-projected to the WGS 84 

datum within ArcGIS. All final maps are referenced to the 

WGS 84 datum.

The JOIN function in ArcGIS software by ESRI was 

then used to associate each well location point (latitude/

longitude) with an individual area defined by the polygon. 

Well locations (latitude/longitude) that were not associated 

with an HUC were removed. As such, offshore wells were 

excluded from this analysis. The total number of points (of 

either hydraulically fractured wells or the associated number 

of hydraulic fracturing treatment records) were then counted 

within the polygon unit boundaries to create the distributions. 

The counts provided in this data series represent the number 

of new wells or treatments applied to new wells that were 

initially drilled (spudded) in a given year. 

Data Series Spreadsheets—

Definitions and Attributes

The directories listed below (accessible at http://dx.doi.

org/10.3133/ds868 in the Downloads directory) contain 

the derivative breakout spreadsheets, in Microsoft3 Excel 

(.xlsx) format, that are the result of the spatial and temporal 

aggregation of data from the original IHS database (IHS 

Energy, 2011), described above. Spreadsheets are sorted into 

five directories: Volumes, Distributions, Wells, Treatments, 

and Keys.

Volumes

• WATER-BASED_VOL_PER_WELL_1-99_

PERCENTILE—The 1st through 99th percentile 

of hydraulic fracturing water-based treatment fluid 

volumes applied to wells spudded from 1947 through 

2010, extracted by era and drill-hole direction. Data 

include the spud year of well, final status of well, 

drill-hole (borehole) direction of well, sum of volumes 

of water-based treatment fluid types applied to the 

well, and units of volume (cubic meters, abbreviated 

as CUM). Data are arranged into seven sheets/tabs 

by era (00-10, 2000–2010; 53-99, 1953–1999; 47-52, 

1947–1952) and drill-hole direction (D, directional; 

V, vertical; H, horizontal). The water-based fluid types 

considered in each time period are listed below:

• 2000–2010: WATER, FLUID, GEL, SLICK 

WATER, CROSSLINK GEL, ACID;

• 1953–1999: WATER, MY-T-FRAC, ACID, 

FRACTURING, SAND GEL FRAC, SAND ACID 

FRAC; and

3

See appendix 1 for Microsoft contact information.

• 1947–1952: WATER, ACID, FRACTURING, 

FLUID, SAND GEL FRAC.

This spreadsheet includes only the original IHS database 

well data (IHS Energy, 2011) that had a treatment type of 

FRAC or REFRAC, a spud year from 1947 through 2010, 

a treatment fluid amount, and a volumetric unit. Each row 

represents a unique well. Note that the median volumes 

of these data are generally slightly lower than the average volumes (Gallegos and Varela, 2014) and that these 

data likely do not include all water volumes related to 

hydraulic fracturing. However, the water-based hydraulic 

fracturing treatment fluid volume medians and average 

values were found to be consistent with water-based fluid 

volumes used to hydraulically fracture wells reported 

in the literature (Gallegos and Varela, 2014). (Record 

count: 529,203)

Distributions

• FRAC_WELL_HUC_US—Annual count of wells 

associated with hydraulic fracturing treatment records, 

spudded in the contiguous United States from 1947 

through 2010, during a given year, within USGS 

hydrologic units, sorted by 8-digit hydrologic unit code 

(HUC) code, HUC name, drill-hole direction, and spud 

year. (Record count: 30,842)

• FRAC_TREAT_HUC_US—Annual count of 

hydraulic fracturing treatment records applied to 

wells spudded in the contiguous United States from 

1947 through 2010, during a given year, within USGS 

hydrologic units, sorted by 8-digit hydrologic unit code 

(HUC) code, HUC name, drill-hole direction, and spud 

year. (Record count: 31,991)

• FRAC_WELL_HUC_AK—Annual count of wells 

associated with hydraulic fracturing treatment records, 

spudded in Alaska from 1947 through 2010, during a 

given year, within USGS hydrologic units, sorted by 

8-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC) code, drill-hole 

direction, and spud year. (Record count: 74)

• FRAC_TREAT_HUC_AK—Annual count of 

hydraulic fracturing treatment records applied to wells 

spudded in Alaska from 1947 through 2010, during a 

given year, within USGS hydrologic units, sorted by 

8-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC) code, drill-hole 

direction, and spud year. (Record count: 74)

• FRAC_WELL_STATE—Annual count of wells 

associated with hydraulic fracturing treatment records, 

spudded within each state in the United States from 

1947 through 2010, during a given year, sorted by state 

and spud year. (Record count: 1,652)
6 Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Distributions Applied to Wells Drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010

• FRAC_TREAT_STATE—Annual count of hydraulic 

fracturing treatment records applied to wells spudded 

within each state in the United States from 1947 

through 2010, during a given year, sorted by state and 

spud year. (Record count: 1,652)

• FRAC_TREAT_GEO_PROV_5k_00-10— Number 

of hydraulic fracturing treatments applied to wells 

spudded from 2000 through 2010 within each geologic 

province having at least 5,000 treatments. (Record 

Count: 16)

Treatments

• FRAC_ADDITIVE—Annual count of additive types 

reported in hydraulic fracturing treatment records 

applied to wells spudded in the United States from 

1947 through 2010, sorted by treatment type (FRAC 

or REFRAC), additive type, and spud year. (Record 

count: 1,081)

• FRAC_HOLE_DIRECTION—Annual count of 

hydraulic fracturing treatment records corresponding 

to drill-hole direction record(s) of associated wells 

spudded in the United States from 1947 through 2010, 

sorted by treatment type (FRAC or REFRAC), hole 

direction type, and spud year. (Record count: 212)

• FRAC_TRTM_FLUID—Annual count of treatment 

fluid types reported in hydraulic fracturing treatment 

records applied to wells spudded in the United States 

from 1947 through 2010, sorted by treatment type 

(FRAC or REFRAC), treatment fluid type, and spud 

year. (Record count: 1,433)

• FRAC_PROPPANT—Annual count of proppant 

types reported in hydraulic fracturing treatment records 

applied to wells spudded in the United States from 

1947 through 2010, sorted by treatment type (FRAC or

REFRAC), proppant [propping agent] type, and spud 

year. (Record count: 260)

• FRAC_TRTM_TYPE—Annual count of hydraulic 

fracturing treatment type (FRAC or REFRAC) records 

applied to wells spudded in the United States from 

1947 through 2010, sorted by treatment type and spud 

year. (Record count: 87)

Wells

• FRAC_WELL_HOR_DIR—Annual count of 

horizontal and directional wells associated with 

hydraulic fracturing treatment records, spudded in the 

United States from 1947 through 2010, sorted by spud 

year. (Record count: 62)

• FRAC_WELL_VERT—Annual count of vertical 

wells associated with hydraulic fracturing treatment 

records, spudded in the United States from 1947 

through 2010, sorted by spud year. (Record count: 64)

• FRAC_WELL_FINAL_STATUS—Annual count of 

final status records of wells associated with hydraulic 

fracturing treatments, spudded in the United States 

from 1947 through 2010, sorted by treatment type 

(FRAC or REFRAC), final status, and spud year. 

(Record count: 609)

Keys

• ADDITIVE_KEY— Definitions of abbreviated 

attributes used in ADDITIVE_TYPE fields. 

• HOLE_DIRECTION_KEY— Definitions of 

abbreviated attributes used in HOLE_DIRECTION_

TYPE fields. 

• PROPPANT_KEY— Definitions of abbreviated 

attributes used in PROPPANT_TYPE fields. 

• TRTM_FLUID_KEY— Definitions of abbreviated 

attributes used in TRTM_FLUID_TYPE fields. 

• TRTM_TYPE_KEY—Definitions of abbreviated 

FRAC and REFRAC treatment types. 

Field Names—Definitions, Data Types, 

and Descriptions

• ADDITIVE—(text) Long name of chemical additive 

used in the treatment fluid during the hydraulic 

fracturing well treatment job (ACID, SURFACTANT, 

GELLING AGENT, etc.) (IHS Energy, 2011).

• ADDITIVE_TYPE—(text) Code identifying the 

type of additive (ACID, SFAC, GELLA, etc.) (IHS 

Energy, 2011).

• FINAL_STATUS—(text) The final status or intent 

of the well (OIL WELL, GAS WELL, etc.) (IHS 

Energy, 2011).

• HOLE_DIRECTION—(text) Long name of 

the direction of the borehole (VERTICAL, 

DIRECTIONAL, HORIZONTAL, etc.) (IHS 

Energy, 2011).

• HOLE_DIRECTION_TYPE—(text) Code indicating 

borehole direction (V, D, H, etc.).
Disclaimers and Limitations 7

• HUC_CODE—(number) Unique 8-digit code 

indicating a USGS hydrologic unit.

• HUC_NAME—(text) Name associated with the 

8-digit hydrologic unit code.

• NUM_FRAC_WELLS_HORIZ_DIR—(number) 

Count of horizontal and directional wells associated 

with hydraulic fracturing treatment record(s), spudded 

in the United States from 1947 through 2010, per given 

spud year.

• NUM_FRAC_WELLS_VERT—(number) Count 

of vertical wells associated with hydraulic fracturing 

treatment record(s), spudded in the United States from 

1947 through 2010, per given spud year.

• NUM_TRTM_RECORDS_00-10—(number) Count 

of treatment records listed from 2000 through 2010.

• PROPPANT_TYPE—(text) Code identifying the type 

of proppant (propping agent) used in the hydraulic 

fracture treatment (SAND, CER, WLNT, etc.).

• PROPPANT—(text) Long name of proppant 

(propping agent) used in the hydraulic fracturing 

treatment fluid (SAND, CERAMICS, WALNUT 

HULLS, etc.) (IHS Energy, 2011).

• PROVINCE_NAME—(text) name of the geologic 

boundaries of provinces as defined for the U.S. 

Geological Survey’s National Oil and Gas Resource 

Assessment Project.

• SPUD_YEAR—(year) Date the drilling operations 

began on the well, as YYYY (IHS Energy, 2011).

• STATE—(text) Name of the U.S. state.

• SUM_WATER_AMT—(number) Sum of all waterbased fluid volumes (for the top 99 percent of waterbased treatment fluid types reported during the periods 

of 1947–1952, 1953–1999, 2000–2010) used to 

hydraulically fracture a given well (IHS Energy, 2011). 

Units converted to cubic meters (abbreviated CUM in 

the table).

• TRTM—(text) Long name of [stimulation] treatment 

job (FRACTURING or RE-FRACTURING) (IHS 

Energy, 2011).

• TRTM_FLUID—(text) Long name of treatment fluid 

used in drilling operation of the well (WATER, ACID, 

SLICK WATER, etc.) (IHS Energy, 2011).

• TRTM_FLUID_TYPE—(text) Code identifying the 

type of treatment fluid (W, A, SLKWTR, etc.) (IHS 

Energy, 2011).

• TRTM_TYPE—(text) Code identifying the type of 

treatment job (FRAC or REFRAC).

• WATER_AMT_UNIT—(text) Water volume units in 

cubic meters. Units acquired from the original version 

of the database were converted to cubic meters. If there 

was no apparent unit conversion available, the data 

were not included.

Links to Spatial Files Used

• 1:250,000-scale Hydrologic Units of the United States 

(by USGS 8-digit hydrologic unit codes):

http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/

huc250k.xml

• ArcGIS layer of states in the United States, 

including the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 

Puerto Rico:

http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1a6cae723

af14f9cae228b133aebc620

• Geologic Provinces of the United States:

http://certmapper.cr.usgs.gov/data/noga95/natl/spatial/

doc/pr_natlg.htm

Disclaimers and Limitations

Disclaimer

This data series publication was prepared by an agency 

of the U.S. Government. Neither the U.S. Government nor 

any agency thereof, nor any of its employees, make any 

warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability 

or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness 

of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed 

in this report, or represent that its use would not infringe 

privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific 

commercial product, process, or service by trade name, 

trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily 

constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or 

favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. 

Although all data published in this data series have been used 

by the USGS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by 

the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and related materials. 

The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, 

and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of 

these data or related materials. 
8 Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Distributions Applied to Wells Drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010

Disclaimer for a Provisional Data Series 

The data you have secured from this USGS data 

series are provisional and subject to revision. The data are 

released on the condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. 

Government may be held liable for any damages resulting 

from its authorized or unauthorized use.

Limitations 

The USGS makes no warranty regarding the accuracy or 

completeness of information presented in this data series. The 

information in this provisional hydraulic fracturing data series 

should be used with careful consideration of the following 

aspects and (or) limitations: 

• Methods of hydraulic fracturing, well construction, 

sample collection, and chemical analysis as well 

as descriptions of fluid names and other well and 

treatment attributes may have changed over time. 

• Data in the original IHS database (IHS Energy, 2011) 

is largely collected and reported by others and, like 

any other database, is subject to error. Although 

criteria were applied to remove the obviously 

flawed or questionable data (such as latitudes and 

longitudes not associated with a U.S. state or HUC; 

wells with spud dates prior to the advent of hydraulic 

fracturing; volumes with irreconcilable units of 

measure), the culling of unrepresentative data is 

considered incomplete.

• Methods of identification, location, measurement, 

naming, description of well-type or its attributes, 

descriptions and definition of fluid types, and 

assignment of volume units and record keeping 

were not performed by USGS personnel and 

therefore quality cannot be assured. Because of 

these uncertainties, users are advised to check 

data for inconsistencies, outliers, and potentially 

flawed information. 

• Although the dates of initial hydraulic fracturing 

treatments were not given, the approximate dates were 

derived by associating hydraulic fracturing with the 

well spud dates.

• The data evaluated herein from the original IHS 

database (IHS Energy, 2011) and resulting data series 

likely do not represent all hydraulically fractured 

wells or hydraulic fracturing treatments in the United 

States. Therefore, the number of wells and hydraulic 

fracturing treatments and their attributes listed in this 

data series may not be completely represented by 

the entries. 

• Each individual well and individual treatment record 

within the original IHS database (IHS Energy, 2011) 

was not independently substantiated. Furthermore, the 

data have not been evaluated for depiction of trends 

on small scales (such as a well-by-well basis or by 

individual hydraulic fracturing treatment). However, 

the data (derived from the original IHS database 

[IHS Energy, 2011]) aggregated over time and (or) 

spatial areas in this data series were evaluated and 

found to be consistent with the literature (Gallegos 

and Varela, 2014). Therefore, these data are deemed 

sufficiently accurate to compute statistics that provide 

an indication of tendencies of hydraulic fracturing 

treatments and hydraulically fractured wells within 

geographically and geologically defined areas (for 

example, states, geologic provinces, HUCs) and over 

defined periods of years (for example, 1947–1952, 

1953–1999, 2000–2010).

• HUC and Geologic Provinces boundaries may have 

changed over time.

Acknowledgments

Funding for this work was provided by the U.S. 

Geological Survey Energy Resources Program. A portion 

of this work was performed in collaboration with the U.S. 

Geological Survey John Wesley Powell Center for Earth 

System Analysis and Synthesis—Working Group on Hydraulic 

Fracturing and Water Resources. Special thanks to Christopher 

Skinner, Greg Gunther, William Kappel, Mark Engle, James 

Otton, Robert Zielinski, Christopher Potter, James Coleman, 

Craig Wandrey, Scott Kinney, Troy Cook, David Ferderer, 

Melanie Parker, and Janet Slate for input, discussion, and 

review. The USGS obtained permission from IHS, Inc., 

to publish the derivative data presented in this data series. 

Original data are proprietary and are not provided here, but 

they are available from IHS, Inc. (IHS Energy, 2011).
References Cited 9

References Cited

Arthur, J.D., Bohm, Brian, and Layne, Mark, 2008, Hydraulic 

fracturing considerations for natural gas wells of the 

Marcellus Shale, in Ground Water Protection Council 

Annual Forum, Cincinnati, Ohio, September 21–24, 2008, 

Proceedings: Ground Water Protection Council, 16 p.

Elbel, Jack, and Britt, Larry, 2000, Fracture treatment design, 

in Economides, M.J., and Nolte, K.G., eds., Reservoir 

stimulation: West Sussex, England, John Wiley & Sons, 

LTD., p. 10-1–10-50.

Gallegos, T.J., and Varela, B.A., 2014, Trends in hydraulic 

fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, 

proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled 

in the United States from 1947 through 2010—Analysis 

and comparison to the literature: U.S. Geological Survey 

Scientific Investigations Report 2014–5131, 15 p., 

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20145131.

IHS Energy, 2011, Petroleum Information Data Model (PIDM) 

2.5 data management system: IHS, Inc. [Available from 

IHS, 15 Inverness Way East, Englewood, CO 80112.]

Montgomery, C.T., and Smith, M.B., 2010, Hydraulic 

fracturing—History of an enduring technology: Journal of 

Petroleum Technology, v. 62, no. 12, p. 26–32.

Appendix 1 11

Appendix 1. Manufacturers of Products and Services Mentioned

Microsoft (makers of Office software, including Access and Excel)

One Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052-6399

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/

ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.) (makers of ArcGIS and ArcVIEW)

380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373-8100

909-793-2853

http://www.esri.com/about-esri

Publishing support provided by: 

Denver and Pembroke Publishing Service Centers

For more information concerning this publication, contact: 

Center Director, USGS Central Energy Resources Science Center 

Box 25046, Mail Stop 939 

Denver, CO 80225 

(303) 236-1647 

Or visit the Central Energy Resources Science Center Web site at: 

 http://energy.usgs.gov/
Gallegos, T.J., and Varelo, B.A.—Data Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Distributions and Treatment Fluids, Additives, Proppants, and Water Volumes Applied 

to Wells Drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010—Data Series 868

ISSN 2327-638x (online)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds868