Last week, several Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) member company executives testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy Natural Resources. At the hearing — titled “Shale Development: Best Practices and Environmental Concerns” — officials from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Baker Hughes, EQT Corporation, Halliburton, Noble Energy, Inc., and XTO Energy, Inc. highlighted a broad range of industry-leading, world-class operational practices aimed at ensuring the safe production of American shale gas. What follows are key excerpts from the panelists’ opening statements:

Clay Bretches, Vice President, Exploration and Production Services and Minerals — Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

  • As one of the largest domestic natural gas producers in U.S. unconventional plays, including shale formations, Anadarko believes that quality regulation is essential for our industry to operate safely, protect the environment, build public trust and ensure accountability.
  • Tremendous progress has been made in recent years by multiple stakeholders to improve best practices, and almost every state with oil and natural gas development has updated requirements to enhance safety and address protection of the environment and public health.
  • Oil and natural gas are used to either manufacture or power nearly everything we use each day, and offer the most realistic and scalable opportunities for a more secure energy future that supports a vibrant domestic economy. Thanks to America’s new-found abundance of natural gas, numerous media outlets have highlighted the marked improvement in carbon emissions in the U.S.

Alan Crain, Senior Vice President/Chief Legal and Governance Officer — Baker Hughes

  • Baker Hughes has extensive standard operating procedures to ensure that our workers are properly trained, that the equipment used to transport, store and pump fracturing fluid is in good condition, and that transportation and pumping operations are conducted safely. While long established, these procedures are regularly updated to take into account technological developments and better practices identified and shared across the industry.
  • As the scale and geographic reach of these operations have expanded, the industry and  regulators have taken steps to ensure that the shale revolution is sustainable. … Increasingly, product improvement is geared to reducing the environmental footprint of shale development—be it using natural gas to power the engines of our trucks, creating environmentally-preferable chemical inputs, or developing new and better ways to recycle produced water and conserve freshwater.
  • Baker Hughes supports the public disclosure of chemical ingredients used during the hydraulic fracturing process as an achievable policy goal. In our sector, we were one of the earliest and largest supporters of FracFocus, the chemical disclosure registry. … This process ensures that employees, government, the public and emergency responders all have ready access to important chemical information.

David Porges, Chairman, President & CEO — EQT Corporation

  • EQT is committed to conducting its business operations in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner at all times – striving to preserve and protect the land, air and water where we live and do business.
  • In addition to a strong and transparent corporate commitment, a robust state regulatory program is critical to ensuring the safe and responsible development of natural gas. This is a role that is historically best suited to state governments as geology, topography, climate and water resources vary significantly between the states.
  • The industry is continuously improving its environmental performance from water recycling to improved cementing techniques to conversion of drilling rig engines to run on cleaner burning natural gas. … EQT worked with other Pennsylvania producers to develop the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s series of recommended practices for shale development in Pennsylvania.

Marc Edwards, Senior Vice President of Completion and Production — Halliburton

  • Halliburton has dedicated an abundant amount of resources toward improving the sustainability of the overall well completion process. … We have developed technology that allows us to completely eliminate the need for fresh water in the drilling and completion process. Our CleanWave service enables us to treat non-potable water, making it usable at the wellsite, and our recent chemistry developments enable using the water to formulate a high performance fracturing fluid.
  • Regarding fracturing fluids, our CleanStim formulation is the only complete system on the market comprising only ingredients sourced from the food industry. It provides an extra measure of safety at the wellsite for people and the environment.
  • The amount of space required is being dramatically reduced through pad drilling by operators and through our Frac of the Future equipment. Our high efficiency Q10 pumps and SandCastle vertical storage bins can reduce the wellsite size required from about 10 acres to as little as three acres. … In addition, we’re a actively converting our pumping units to use a combination of diesel and clean burning natural gas. Fewer diesel engines and dual fuel capability can help further reduce overall emissions.

Charles Davidson, Chairman & CEO — Noble Energy, Inc.

  • We constantly strive to improve our performance and to minimize the impact of our operations on communities, air, water, land and wildlife. And, we seek-out solutions to challenging circumstances.
  • Advances in technology and innovation have unlocked new energy resources that are fueling an energy renaissance in America. This renaissance brings with tremendous opportunities, including economic growth, enhanced energy security, environmental benefits, employment opportunities, and government revenues to support the needs of our society.

Jack Williams, President — XTO Energy Inc.

  • Thanks to our industry’s commitment to operational integrity and effective risk management, we are unlocking these vast, new supplies of energy safely, securely, and in an environmentally responsible way.
  • From 2006 to 2011, our industry has drilled more than 42,000 wells to develop unconventional oil and natural gas in the United States. Our overall track record has been quite good, reflecting our commitment to safe operations and responsible practices – a commitment that begins with planning, permitting, and community outreach and extends to drilling, well completion, and production. We have achieved this record not only by embracing our responsibilities, but also by respecting the critical role of government.
  • Our shared commitment to safety and the application of new technologies proves that our federal system’s respect for state oversight is well placed and that we can work together to expand supplies of energy … grow our economy … and protect the environment for generations to come.

Have questions about how MSC member companies are working to make certain that Marcellus Shale production is carried out responsibly and in way that protects and enhances our environment? Please review our series of Recommended Practices and be sure to visit LearnAboutShale.org for more fact-based information.