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Secretary of Energy Advisory Board

Task Force Report on FracFocus 2.0

February 24, 2014

U.S. Department of Energy
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Executive Summary

This report presents the findings and recommendations for the Secretary of Energy 

Advisory Board (SEAB) Task Force on FracFocus. This Task Force report builds upon and 

extends the 2011 SEAB Subcommittee report on the environmental impacts of 

unconventional gas production.

The Task Force believes that the FracFocus experience to date demonstrates the ease of 

disclosure of chemicals added to fracturing fluid for companies, the value of this 

disclosure for the public, and the importance of public confidence in the quality and

accessibility of the FracFocus chemical registry data. It has accomplished a good deal 

and shows the capacity to make improvements at modest additional cost. FracFocus

has greatly improved public disclosure quickly and with a significant degree of 

uniformity. 

The Task Force recommends a number of actions that will further improve the 

effectiveness of the FracFocus disclosure of chemical additives and improve 

transparency for regulators, operating companies, and the public. Recommendations 

are made for improving the accuracy and completeness of registry submissions. In 

addition, the Task Force believes that an independent audit to assess the accuracy and 

compliance of the process will be useful for all stakeholders.

A large fraction of reporting wells claim at least one trade secret exemption. The Task 

Force favors full disclosure of all known constituents added to fracturing fluid with few, 

if any exceptions. A “systems approach” that reports the chemicals added separately 

from the additive names and product names that contain them, generally should 

provide adequate protection of trade secrets. The Task Force further calls for state and 

federal regulators to adopt standards for making a trade secret claim and establish an 

accompanying compliance process and a challenge mechanism.

The Task Force also makes recommendations for improving data storage and retention 

collected by FracFocus, the budget required for FracFocus to operate and upgrade its 
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service and system, as well as for how these activities might be financed by a 

combination of DOE support and/or a user charge.

All members of the Task Force support this report.

Context for the Task Force Deliberations

On November 26, 2013 Secretary of Energy Moniz charged the SEAB to establish a Task 

Force to review FracFocus 2.0, the registry for public disclosure of chemical constituents 

added to hydraulic fracturing fluids used in unconventional oil and gas production. The

Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact 

Commission (IOGCC), two quasi-public organizations dedicated to conservation and 

environmental protection, operate the FracFocus registry.

1

The Secretary’s charge to 

the Task Force included in Appendix A, instructs the Task Force to examine seven topics 

related to the operation of FracFocus. Task Force membership is given in Appendix B.

The Task Force was formed to respond to a request from Senator Wyden, chair of the 

Senate Energy Committee, to review FracFocus. The Secretary turned to SEAB because 

a subcommittee of the board had undertaken a study to identify measures to reduce 

the environmental impacts of unconventional gas production in 2011.

2

 President 

Obama had directed former Secretary Chu to form this Subcommittee as part of the 

President’s "Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future."

3

The 2011 SEAB Subcommittee report made over twenty recommendations for reducing 

the environmental impact of unconventional gas operations.4A central finding of the 

2011 Subcommittee report was the importance of a process of continuous improvement 

in various aspects of shale gas production that relies on best practices and is tied to 

 

1

Information about FracFocus can be found on the web at http://fracfocus.org/ .

2

The Subcommittee’s interim and final report in August and November 2011, respectively can 

be found at http://www.shalegas.energy.gov/. 

3

Available at Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future (pdf), The White House, March 30, 2011.

4

Page 1, August 2011 Subcommittee report.
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measurement and disclosure in order to achieve progressively lower levels of 

environmental impact.5 While the focus of the Subcommittee was unconventional 

shale gas production the Task Force believes that most, if not all, of its findings apply to 

both unconventional oil and gas exploration and production.

Several of the 2011 Subcommittee recommendations were directed at increasing 

transparency and disclosure in order to support state and national regulations and to 

meet public concerns about hydraulic fracturing. The Subcommittee specifically 

recommended DOE support for (1) the then new FracFocus website for voluntary

disclosure of fracturing fluid composition; (2) STRONGER (the State Review of Oil and 

Natural Gas Environmental Regulation); and (3) the Groundwater Protection Council for 

expansion of the Risk Based Data Management System (RBDMS), so that similar projects

might be expanded to other aspects of shale gas and oil development. As discussed 

below several additional suggestions were made bearing on the disclosure of fracturing 

fluid chemicals and on the operation of FracFocus. Accordingly, it was appropriate for

Secretary Moniz to turn to SEAB to review and extend its findings on disclosure of 

fracturing fluid chemical composition and the operation of FracFocus in response to 

Chairman Wyden’s request.

Questions for the Task Force to address

The terms of reference suggests the Task Force examine seven matters: 

(1) Evolution of the operation of FracFocus 2.0 toward timely, complete, and accurate 

data storage.

(2) The extent to which state and federal regulatory bodies are using FracFocus to meet 

regulatory disclosure requirements. 

 

5

Pages 1 to 5, August 2011 Subcommittee Report.
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(3) Understanding the breadth of data maintained by FracFocus, how frequently 

companies are using the proprietary exemption to avoid disclosure of fracturing fluid 

composition, and the standards for the use of this exemption.

(4) Understanding the difference in federal data custody requirements and FracFocus 

practices.

(5) Increasing the utility of FracFocus by maintaining it as a database with tools suitable 

for analysis by regulatory bodies, companies, and the public.

(6) Expanding the scope of the FracFocus registry to other areas, such as the water 

quality data in neighboring water wells collected prior to well stimulation or 

postproduction.

(7) Adequacy of funding for FracFocus activities and suggestion for possible alternative 

arrangements.

The 2011 Subcommittee addressed several of these issues, in particular, (2), (3), (5), and 

(7). The current report is informed by this work and, where noted, the 2011 findings 

have been confirmed and/or extended.

Addressing the Questions

(1) Evolution of the operation of FracFocus 2.0 toward timely, complete, and 

accurate data storage. The following table summarizes the rapid growth of key 

FracFocus operating factors and the map below displays the states that require 

chemical disclosure. It is notable that between 2011 and 2013 the number of 

registered wells increased more than four fold.
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Operating Factors 2011 2012 2013

States requiring FF disclosure 2 8 14

# of wells registered 14,246 24,570 62,410

FF budget6$000 $527 $1,438 $1,406

The two important trends are the growth in the number of wells entered into the 

registry and the increase in the number of states that use FracFocus as part of their 

disclosure requirement for the composition of fracturing fluids. The evolution of 

FracFocus from version 1.0 to 2.0 enables the system to respond to several of the 2011 

Subcommittee recommendations. The registry’s back end has also converted from 

spreadsheet based to a web-based data entry process.

Initially FracFocus directed those using the site to disclose all chemicals used in 

fracturing fluids that appear on Material Safety Data Sheets (by common name and,

more importantly, by their Chemical Abstract Service, or CAS, identification number). 

Chemicals on these sheets are believed to be hazardous to workers in an occupational 

 

6

Source: FracFocus. These funds come from the DOE, the American Petroleum Institute,

American Natural Gas Alliance, Environmental Defense Fund and other organizations.
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setting as determined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA). 

MSDS reporting does not include other chemicals that might be hazardous to humans in 

an environmental setting or that might be harmful to the environment. Thus the 2011 

Subcommittee recommended that disclosure include all chemicals intentionally added 

to fracturing fluid, not just those that appear on MSDS. FracFocus 2.0 follows this 

recommendation now asking for “additional ingredients not listed on MSDS.”

Full disclosure means the public reporting of all constituents added to fracturing fluid 

injected into a well. Constituents include both “chemicals” and “additives” such as 

surfactants, friction reduction agents, and tracers that are composite material 

composed of several, perhaps many, molecules. As discussed below this distinction is 

important because companies frequently believe that it is the chemical composition of 

additives (or formulated materials) as a product that is most likely to have proprietary 

value that deserve exemption from disclosure as a “trade secret.” Most states currently 

require disclosure of both chemicals and additives. 

Currently, disclosure does not require any information about the chemistry of the makeup water that is traditionally 90% by weight of the fracturing fluid. The water used to 

mix the fracturing fluid is normally fresh water taken from water wells, lakes or rivers. 

However, during the past few years, it is becoming increasingly common to recycle 

fracture fluid that is produced from wells that have recently experienced physical or 

chemical fracture treatment. In either case, the chemicals that are part of the make-up 

water are not always measured and usually not reported as part of FracFocus 2.0. 

Disclosure of the water analysis of the make-up water used in hydraulic fracturing would 

be appropriate, if data were available. 

It is important to assess the accuracy of well data disclosed on FracFocus since 

transparency implies correct information has been filed. Examination of a limited 

sample of records from FracFocus 2.0 indicates a variety of errors, partly due to many 

different companies contributing data to an individual FracFocus record, besides the 

operator of the well. We recommend:
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(a) FracFocus should examine the entire data entry workflow and structure, looking 

for opportunities to simplify data structure and steps for data entry to reduce 

the probability of data entry errors, and assuring accuracy. Simple data entry 

reduces errors. 

(b) FracFocus should improve the quality of the data entered into the system, 

especially the accuracy and completeness of reported CAS numbers. CAS 

numbers are the unique and universal identifier of individual chemicals that 

might go under a variety of different names. FracFocus 2.0 has introduced basic 

error checking that alerts users if an entered CAS number is in the proper format, 

but not whether the CAS number matches the chemical name, or even if the CAS 

number is currently in use. While FracFocus does not assert authority to reject 

operator entries, the automatic validation system should be expanded and

improved. 

(c) When FracFocus discovers an error in a company submission FracFocus should 

inform the company and indicate on the web site that the submitted data are in 

some doubt. Such a notice on the FracFocus web site would inform the 

regulatory authorities and the public that there is an issue and serve as incentive 

to the company to revise the submission. (The Task Force understands that the 

FracFocus variant in use in British Columbia contains this feature). This practice 

would also encourage operators to assure that CAS numbers received from 

manufacturers and suppliers are accurate. 

(d) FracFocus should make provisions for submissions to include more information 

about the water used as a base fluid, for example whether it is 100% fresh water

or does it contain a percentage of recycled fracturing fluid. Such data in 

FracFocus would be available to EPA, state regulators and the public. 

(e) In some instances, the FracFocus disclosure form does not explicitly call for 

information required by state disclosure rules. For example, with respect to 

chemical concentrations, some states require actual concentrations, while the 

form only requests maximum concentrations. The Task Force recommends that 
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states be attentive to ensure compliance with more specific state disclosure 

requirements, especially where FracFocus requires less or different information.

FracFocus and the states that require disclosure, through FracFocus or more generally,

have different ways of assessing compliance with respect to timing, accuracy, and 

substance of the disclosure. The Task Force believes that an understanding of how well 

this disclosure system is working would be enhanced if an independent audit were 

conducted to assess the accuracy and compliance of the process. This would benefit all 

stakeholders in FracFocus – regulators, companies, and the public. The audit should be 

sponsored by an independent entity with the objective of shedding light on FracFocus

system operations in addition to the information it houses. Accordingly, the Task Force 

recommends that DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy contract with a suitable audit or 

consulting firm to perform this audit. The audit should include (1) the accuracy of the 

operator's field records; (2) a comparison of the operator's field records to the service 

company field tickets; (3) a comparison of the service company's field ticket to the 

service company final report; and (4) the accuracy of the data entry into FracFocus 2.0.

The audit firm should consider sample size and diversity to ensure a meaningful review 

and should examine, among other factors, trade secret exemption claims.

(2) The extent to which state and federal regulatory bodies are using FracFocus to 

meet regulatory disclosure requirements. FracFocus has evolved beyond a strictly

voluntary effort as state regulators and firms have recognized the level of public 

concern about possible health and environmental consequences of chemical 

constituents used in fracturing fluid to water supplies. Voluntary disclosure offered an 

immediate and practical response to growing public concern about chemical use for 

both industry and regulatory bodies.

As of November 1, 2013, over 20 states have adopted some level of disclosure 

requirements, of which 14 states require the use of FracFocus. Inspection and 
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enforcement will require increased effort on the part of state regulators.

7

 FracFocus 

makes an important contribution by facilitating the flow of information to states 

through the Risk Based Data Management System (RBDMS). 

(3) Understanding the breadth of data housed in FracFocus, how frequently 

companies are invoking the trade secret exemption to avoid disclosure of fracturing 

fluid composition, and the standards for the use of this exemption. The Task Force 

believes that full disclosure of all known constituents added to fracturing fluids is 

desirable. It is desirable because transparent disclosure addresses the public concern, 

justified or not, about the risk these chemicals present to drinking water supplies. 

Trade secret claims that shield disclosure are made to protect perceived intellectual 

property value of the chemical treatment. The Task Force has no wish to constrain

innovation for improved environmental characteristics or performance/cost attributes 

of chemical stimulation, or to limit the role of proprietary information as part of the 

innovation process. Indeed, as discussed below, the Task Force believes this disclosure 

can be accomplished with little or no risk to disclosing proprietary information. 

Regulatory bodies have the authority to adopt binding disclosure requirements. The 

Task Force is challenging FracFocus to operate in a manner that encourages full 

disclosure with few, in any trade secret exceptions.

The 2011 Subcommittee strongly endorsed full disclosure of the chemical composition 

of fracturing fluids:

Disclosure of fracturing fluid composition: The Subcommittee shares the

prevailing view that the risk of fracturing fluid leakage into drinking water 

sources through fractures made in deep shale reservoirs is remote.8

Nevertheless the Subcommittee believes there is no economic or technical 

reason to prevent public disclosure of all chemicals in fracturing fluids, with an 

exception for genuinely proprietary information. While companies and 

 

7

Hydraulic Fracturing – Chemical Disclosure Requirements, Congressional Research Service, Brandon 

Murrill & Adam Vann, June 19, 2012. R42461.

8

Fracturing fluids can reach surface and near-surface water supplies, for example, if there is 

poor well completion or surface accidents during production. 
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regulators are moving in this direction, progress needs to be accelerated in light 

of public concern.9

The Subcommittee believes that the high level of public concern about the 

nature of fracturing chemicals suggests that the benefit of immediate and 

complete disclosure of all chemical components and composition of fracturing 

fluid completely outweighs the restriction on company action, the cost of 

reporting, and any intellectual property value of proprietary chemicals. The 

Subcommittee believes that public confidence in the safety of fracturing would 

be significantly improved by complete disclosure and that the barrier to shield 

chemicals based on trade secret should be set very high. Therefore the 

Subcommittee recommends that regulatory entities immediately develop rules 

to require disclosure of all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluids on both 

public and private lands.10

The Task Force endorses this finding.

The FracFocus disclosure exemption is based on “trade secret” as defined in OSHA 

regulation 1910.1200(i)(1).11 The Task Force has learned from FracFocus that 84% of the 

registered wells invoked a trade secret exemption for at least one chemical, with the 

range by state extending from 57% to 100%, since FracFocus 2.0 went operational in 

June of 2013. On average, trade secret exemptions were claimed for 16% of the 

chemical entries recorded in the FracFocus database between June and December 

2013.12 (See Appendix C). While there are many different ways to assess the incidence 

of the trade secret exemption claim (for example, by well, by chemical, by mass, by 

state, or by operating company) this data does not suggest the level of transparency and 

disclosure urged by this Task Force or by the 2011 Subcommittee and supported by this 

Task Force. More can be done.

 

9

Page 3, August, 2011 Subcommittee Report.

10 Page 24, August 2011 Subcommittee Report.

11 This report uses the narrower “trade secret” term rather than “proprietary information” or 

“confidential business information” because it is more consistent with the call for a “high bar” 

for disclosure.

12 A chemical entry occurs each time that a chemical is disclosed in an individual well. The 

percentage of chemical entries is not the same as the percentage of unique chemicals claimed 

as a trade secret, but it is one of the more useful metrics for understanding the incidence of 

trade secret claims. But, recall the reporting complications mentioned on page 11.
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There may be reporting complications that can be masking, to some extent, the number 

of trade secret exemptions on FracFocus and the number of trade secrets claimed. If a 

submission leaves the CAS field blank or reports zero concentration of uses the “less 

than” symbol, the FracFocus users may interpret such instances as a trade secret claim. 

One company reviewed for the Task Force their internal records of the 1500+ 

disclosures made to FracFocus after 6/1/2013 and found 120 separate trade secret 

claims, involving 400 chemicals from almost 58,000 chemicals reported in all the 

disclosures. The company was unable to determine from the FracFocus database the 

chemical agent claims attributed to this particular 1500+ sample. There seems to be a 

discrepancy between the trade secret claims data indicated by FracFocus and the 

internal records of some companies that suggest a much lower incidence of trade secret 

claims for those companies. The work recommended by this Task Force should shed 

light on this important issue.

This Task Force believes that the goal should be to have very few trade secret 

exemption claims from disclosure. The public is clearly concerned about the nature of 

the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. It is much to industry’s advantage to meet 

this concern. 

The federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act13 and laws enacted 

in several states give officials access to chemical trade secret information in times of 

crisis in order to give emergency first responders and health officials access to 

information they need. So the impression that trade secrets bar public access to 

information in all circumstances is incorrect. The Task Force endorses strong provisions 

to provide access to trade secret information in emergency situations but goes further 

in advocating disclosure.

 

13 The objective of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA) is to: (1) 

allow state and local planning for chemical emergencies, (2) provide for notification of 

emergency releases of chemicals, and (3) address communities' right-to-know about toxic and 

hazardous chemicals. However, the access formally is only to chemicals that appear on 

Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) See http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/lcra.html
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The Task Force urges industry to pursue complete disclosure rather than protecting 

trade secrets of uncertain technical merit, especially since compliance has very low, if 

any, risk of disclosing proprietary information if submission is organized by the 

chemicals rather than the additives or products to the fluid. A list of chemicals that

includes the contributions from all the constituents added makes it extremely difficult to 

reverse engineer to determine which chemicals and in what proportions these 

chemicals are present in a particular additive or product with specific trade name. Thus 

trade secret protection generally can be accomplished by reporting a list of products 

and chemicals added without disclosing which chemical is in each product. In sum, the 

Task Force recommendation for chemical disclosure is 

• No trade secret disclaimers unless documented and 

attested as they do in Wyoming or Arkansas - but the 

fewer the better.

• Report the complete list of chemical by their CAS numbers 

and quantities added.

• Report a complete list of products without linking to the 

list of chemicals 14

Operators report that chemical suppliers or pumping services demand trade secret 

protection for their products. The Task Force believes that if the leading operators and 

oil field service companies establish practical protocols for data transfer across the 

supply chain, and clear requirements for their suppliers, then supplier insistence of 

trade secrets will be greatly reduced and possibly disappear.

The Task Force believes three steps should be taken to further explore way to reduce 

the use of the trade secret exemption:

(a). Assemble accurate data about the nature and extent of trade secrecy claims 

across chemical, states, operators, suppliers and time. Under the auspices of DOE 

 

14 The reporting by disaggregated chemicals in known in industry practice as the “systems 

approach” and it is used by at least one large oil field service supplier.
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Fossil Energy and with the cooperation of FracFocus, it should be possible to 

complete this study within four to six months. 

The study should include: (1) trends in trade secret claims; (2) the percentage of 

wells with one or more hydraulic fracturing chemicals that are claimed to be trade 

secret; (3) for wells with trade secret claims, the average number of claims, the 

average percentage of chemicals used in such wells that have been claimed as 

trade secret, and the percentage by mass of chemicals used in such wells that 

have been claimed as trade secret; (4) the degree to which the incidence of trade 

secret claims varies by operator and supplier; (5) the overall percentage of 

hydraulic fracturing chemicals, on a state and national basis, that are claimed to 

be trade secret; and (6) how commonly particular chemicals claimed as trade 

secret are used.

(b). States and federal regulators should establish a standard for claiming the 

exemption. The Task Force notes the criticism that has been raised that while 

trade secret law is generally standardized across the country, there is no accepted

standard for asserting a trade secret exemption in the hydraulic fracturing context

and no standardized compliance procedure to verify the claim for protection.15 

The Task Force believes the standard for disclosure exemption should be very high. 

We recommend that states use the State Review of Oil and Gas Regulations, 

(STRONGER) mechanism to craft and adopt stringent criteria for trade secret

exemption to disclosure and a process for validating compliance. STRONGER 

should begin by reviewing the practices in different states to determine the 

effectiveness of different approaches and, when available, draw on the results of 

the DOE Fossil Energy review in subsection (a) above and the independent audit 

we recommend above of the FracFocus disclosure system, in particular the data 

collected on trade secret claims. 

 

15 K. Konschnik, M. Holden, and A. Shasteen, Legal Fractures in Chemical Disclosure Laws, 

Harvard Law School, Environmental Law Program, April 23, 2013.
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(c). State and federal regulators should establish compliance of trade secret claims and 

challenge mechanisms once a procedure is in place. Every trade secret exemption 

procedure adopted by a state should be accompanied by mechanisms for 

determining compliance (including certification by the company invoking 

exemption that the procedure has been followed) and for interested parties from 

the public to raise challenges. 

This work and its results will be of interest to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the Department of Interior. Therefore 

the study and work recommended on trade secrets should be coordinated with these

federal agencies. The BLM recently proposed disclosure policy regulations.16 These

proposed disclosure regulations do not yet meet the high disclosure standards that the

2011 Subcommittee recommended that BLM adopt.17 Therefore, the Task Force 

recommends that any trade secret exemptions permitted by BLM in its regulations for 

hydraulic fracturing on federal lands include a rigorous process of claiming trade secret 

exemptions and robust trade secret verification and challenge mechanisms. 

(4) Understanding the difference in federal data custody requirements and FracFocus 

practices. The Task Force understands that there are differences in the data custody 

practices of FracFocus and the more stringent and comprehensive federal data custody 

standards. It is not unusual to find private sector data practices different from and/or

below federal standards with respect to security, storage, and retention. The Task Force 

would encourage and welcome improvements in FracFocus data custody practices. 

 

16 Department of Interior, BLM, 43 CFR Part 3160 , [WO-300-L13100000.FJ0000] 

RIN 1004-AE26, Oil and Gas; Well Stimulation, Including Hydraulic Fracturing, on Federal and 

Indian Lands. The BLM proposed rule allows companies to identify confidential information that 

is exempt from public disclosure under the Trade Secrets Act or other Federal law. However, if 

BLM determines that the asserted confidential information is not prohibited from disclosure by 

Federal law, BLM may make that information available to the public. The rule does not specify 

the process by which the BLM would assess or deny the protection, nor a procedure for public 

challenge of the claim.

17 Page 6, November 2011 Subcommittee Report.
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FracFocus has an informal policy for permanent data retention. The Task Force 

recommends that FracFocus formalize a more robust policy for its public data custody,

data management, security, storage and retention practices and adopt an explicit policy 

of long-term data retention. This policy should include provision for data custody if the 

organizations that currently sponsor FracFocus decide in the future to drop the activity. 

The Task Force is aware of discussions underway between FracFocus and DOE’s Energy 

Information Administration to include FracFocus as an element of EIA’s contemplated 

National Oil and Gas Information Gateway. This relationship should prove productive 

for FracFocus, and the RBDMS with which it is now integrated, as a means to identify 

further opportunities for improvement of data management. 

Standards that are important for FracFocus to adopt include: protections against 

unauthorized alteration or deletion of data; long-term data retention policy including 

both original and any updated submissions, and audit trails. Additionally, FracFocus 

should amend its “terms of use” to eliminate restrictions on sharing and aggregation of 

data on the site.

To ensure that data will be subject to government open records policies that apply to 

publicly held data, the Task Force also recommends that any state or federal agency that 

adopts FracFocus as a reporting venue should explicitly adopt a policy to download data 

or otherwise take possession of information from FracFocus on a regular basis (e.g.,

weekly).

The Task Force recognizes that the RBDMS program, the oil and gas regulatory agency 

database used by the majority of oil and gas producing states to manage and analyze oil 

and gas program data and water resources information, has developed a module to 

interface with the FracFocus website. This module will allow regulators to automatically 

download and parse raw data submitted to FracFocus, streamlining the data transfer 

process and permitting statistical analyses and auditing functions. Putting this module to 

work in individual states can be done quickly but requires certain additional 
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programming. GWPC should accelerate the rollout of this RBDMS module to states that 

receive chemical disclosure data through FracFocus.

(5) Increasing the utility of FracFocus by maintaining it as a database with tools

suitable for analysis by regulatory bodies, companies, and the public. The 2011 

Subcommittee report noted that the FracFocus registry was not maintained as a 

database and tools were not available to analyze the information to answer questions of 

interest to regulators, operating companies, and public interest groups. 

By 2013, FracFocus had made important progress in upgrading the registry to act as a 

database, with varying levels of access for the public and for state regulators. The Task 

Force recommends that DOE fund FracFocus to upgrade its website to be a more usable 

interactive database.

18

 DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy should commission an independent 

cost estimate of a project to construct a fully interactive database.

The following are a non-exhaustive list of improvements that FracFocus should consider 

making:

a. Allow for searching by any field included in a FracFocus submission record 

(including additive trade name, additive purpose, chemical supplier, date 

submitted, etc.).

b. Eliminate the 2000 record display limit, or allow a “next” function. FracFocus

currently returns a maximum of 2000 records for any search, without 

indicating which 2000 are being presented. FracFocus should either return all 

results, or allow for a “next 2000” functionality.

c. Solve the CAS number concatenation problem. To the extent that the public 

is using data scrapers in order to transfer information from FracFocus PDFs to 

private databases (an activity that promotes better understanding of the 

FracFocus data in the absence of raw database availability), researchers are 

 

18 Pages 13 – 15, August 2011, Subcommittee Report
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running into problems that arise from how CAS numbers are sometimes 

entered in batch instead of separately, resulting in CAS numbers appearing 

together on one line in an unbroken string. FracFocus should modify how the 

PDFs are created to eliminate this problem.

d. Allow batch downloads of PDFs. Currently, the system only permits the 

downloading of a single well’s chemical disclosure PDF at a time. 

e. Address the SEAB 2011 report recommendation that the system “include 

tools for searching and aggregating data by chemical, well, by company, and 

by geography.”

19 One way to do so would be to release the full contents of 

the FracFocus database in raw, machine-readable form on the FracFocus 

website. 

There is interest in understanding the value of FracFocus and who is using this resource. 

The Task Force recommends that FracFocus include on its website a dropdown menu 

requiring the user when entering the system to identify their affiliation or perspective:

o State government official

o Federal government official

o Local government official

o Non-Governmental Organization

o Operating company

o Service company

o Landowner

o Mineral owner

o Educator

o Research Organization

o General public

o Other

(6) Potential for broadening the scope of FracFocus to include any water quality data 

regarding surrounding water sources both before and after hydraulic fracturing drilling 

activity. There have been several other proposals for broadening the scope of FracFocus 

as well. Examples of these suggestions are to require disclosure at the registry of (a) the 

 
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chemical composition of flow back and produced water from hydraulically fractured 

wells; (c) concentration of radioactive elements in the flow back water from the

geological formation; (d) disclosure of pre-fracturing information such as chemicals 

planned for use; and (e) “master lists” of chemicals used by particular companies in a 

state in a given year. 

Each of these suggestions (and others) is of potential interest as part of the regulatory 

process. But each of these measures also poses challenges for a registry for which 

companies’ disclosure submissions remain – in many instances – voluntary. Some of 

these suggestions would require, for example, definitions that respect highly variable 

geologies, quality control of data submitted by producers with different technical 

sophistication, and the necessary complex rules for inclusion. The exploration of 

possible extensions of the concept of the registry to a wider range of use may indeed be 

productive but we note that the success of FracFocus to date is very much a 

consequence of its narrow focus and therefore we do not endorse any specific 

extensions at the present time. 

However, within the scope of hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure, the Task Force 

notes that the current functionality of FracFocus 2.0 does not meet all of the state 

requirements, such as pre-fracturing disclosure in Wyoming and “master list” 

requirements in Arkansas. These are matters that need to be addressed by the RBDMS

mechanism of the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas 

Compact.

The 2011 Subcommittee recommended the creation of a web portal that would 

aggregate a wide range of public information on shale gas development.20 This Task 

Force supports this recommendation, and stresses the importance of making data from 

state and federal regulatory agencies and other sources public -- including statistics 

regarding methane emission measurements, enforcement information, and other 

 

20 Pages 13 – 15, August 2011 Subcommittee Report.
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material – as part of a comprehensive national database. The portal should be open to 

the public for use to study and analyze oil and gas operations and results.

(7) Stable funding for FracFocus activities. The Task Force like the 2011 Subcommittee, 

is concerned that FracFocus have a stable source of funding. Up to the present, support 

has come from a combination of sources: the DOE, the API, and other organizations. 

The current level of funding is about $700,000 per year. Currently, the annual cost of 

maintaining FracFocus is approximately $1 million. Measured initiatives to update the 

FracFocus 2.0 website, provide training for the use of the FracFocus system, and to

increase capability, (e.g., well finder emergency response, implementation of 

integration between FracFocus and RBDMS), are programmed for an additional 

expenditure level of $500,000 per year for the period 2014 to 2016. 

The Task Force believes that a funding level of about $1.5 million per year is justified to

cover the current FracFocus 2.0 activities mentioned above and the additional work 

recommended in this report: (a) making the website a user-friendly database; (b) 

carrying out some audits of the accuracy of data deposited in the registry; and (c) 

coordinating with STRONGER to craft and adopt stringent criteria for trade secret 

exemption and a process for validating compliance. Additional initiatives put forward 

by FracFocus could well justify a higher budget especially projects that are integrated 

into the RBDMS.

At present the modest (< $1 million) budget for FracFocus is covered by a DOE grant, 

occasional contributions from a state, and from two oil and gas industry associations. 

The Task Force believes that the importance of FracFocus justifies a stable source of 

funding. There are two options for accomplishing this: (a) a higher multi-year grant or 

contract from DOE or (b) a modest user fee assessed on each well registered. For every 

10,000 wells registered each year, a $50 registration fee per well would produce a 

revenue stream of $0.5 million for FracFocus. A combination of DOE support and use 

fee will comfortably provide for FracFocus. Accordingly, The Task Force recommends 

that DOE move to establish a stable multi-year budget for FracFocus employing one or 
Task Force Draft for public comment

21

both of these mechanisms. To ensure public confidence in the integrity of FracFocus, it

should take steps to make clear that any industry contributions do not appear to 

influence FracFocus operations in any way. 
Task Force Draft for public comment

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Appendix A – Secretary Moniz charge to SEAB for the Frac Focus Task Force
Task Force Draft for public comment

23

Appendix B – Task Force membership

Organization affiliations are listed for identification purposes only. The Task Force report 

integrates the contributions of individual members and should not be associated with 

the view of any of the listed organizations. 

*Frances Beinecke President, Natural Resources Defense Council 

*Rafael L. Bras Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Georgia 

 Institute of Technology 

*John Deutch MIT Chemist and Former Under Secretary of Energy – Task Force Chair

*Persis Drell Professor of Physics, Stanford University and Former Director, SLAC 

 National Accelerator Laboratory – Ex Officio SEAB Co-chair 

Stephen Holditch Professor of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M

Fred Krupp President, Environmental Defense Fund

*Dan W. Reicher Executive Director, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, 

 Stanford University and faculty member, Stanford Law School and 

 Graduate School of Business

*Ram Shenoy Chief Technology Officer, ConocoPhillips 

Susan Tierney Managing Principal, Analysis Group; Former DOE Assistant

 Secretary for Policy

*Daniel Yergin Vice Chairman, IHS and Founder of IHS Cambridge Energy Research 

 Associates

* SEAB member
Task Force Draft for public comment

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Appendix C - Data from FracFocus2

State

Disclosures	Since	

6/1/2013

Disclosures	With	

Trade	Secret

Percent	of	

Chemicals

Alabama 17 17 21

Alaska 1 1 13

Arkansas 246 246 17

California 401 269 6

Colorado 1026 995 25

Kansas 91 52 4

Louisiana 100 68 15

Michigan 1 1 23

Mississsippi 6 4 10

Montana 78 51 11

New	Mexico 343 336 22

North	Dakota 1190 988 13

Ohio 154 128 23

Oklahoma 1158 764 15

Pennsylvania 565 356 15

Texas 6406 5509 17

Utah 609 591 22

Virginia 4 4 22

West	Virginia 102 86 15

Wyoming 470 432 17

Total 12968 10898

Average 84.04% 15.80%

Disclosures	Submitted	to	FracFocus	Version	2.0