Summary: Chemical records in FracFocus range from less than one pound to over 1 million pounds. Disclosures that fail to report quantity data obscure a critical piece of information. Open-FF found that Texas had 21,676 such disclosures by 490 different operators.
Background on chemical quantity omissions
- The national disclosure instrument, FracFocus, documents the fracking chemicals that have been used in over 220,000 fracking jobs in the US since 2011. This extensive data set is especially important because it is one of the few resources available to the public about fracking chemicals. As such, FracFocus should be central to analyses and debates about fracking patterns and impacts. However, poor data integrity can undermine the usefulness of this resource.
- The Open-FF project is trying to make errors in FracFocus more visible to stakeholders. Our aim is to alert users of FracFocus data to weaknesses and to encourage operators to correct problems and prevent future errors.
- Fracking chemical quantities reported in FracFocus can range from less than one pound to over one million pounds. Open-FF has found that data records for chemical quantity are incomplete in over 35,000 disclosures and more are added monthly. These FracFocus data omissions prevent users from understanding the scope of the environmental and public health risks associated with hydraulic fracturing operations.
- This post outlines the data omissions for this state using a FracFocus data set downloaded on Feb 19, 2025.
The scope of Texas’s data omission issue
As of this date, Texas has 89,010 disclosures in FracFocus with chemical records. We have detected records with omitted quantities in 24.4% of those disclosures. The following figure illustrates Texas’s pattern over time.
The following table summarizes the operating companies with affected disclosures in Texas. (Only those companies with 40 or more affected disclosures are listed.) To see examples of data omission, follow “Link to Report” for summaries of specific companies. On those pages, you will find lists of the chemicals that haven’t been fully reported.
| Operator | detected number of disclosures in Texas | link to Open-FF report |
|---|---|---|
| Pioneer Natural Resources | 3,292 | link to report |
| EOG Resources, Inc. | 2,141 | link to report |
| Chesapeake Operating, Inc. | 958 | link to report |
| BHP Billiton Petroleum | 918 | link to report |
| Marathon Oil | 783 | link to report |
| ConocoPhillips Company/Burlington Resources | 728 | link to report |
| XTO Energy/ExxonMobil | 723 | link to report |
| SM Energy | 560 | link to report |
| Anadarko Petroleum Corporation | 545 | link to report |
| Blackbeard Operating | 519 | link to report |
| Lewis Energy Group | 439 | |
| Occidental Oil and Gas | 410 | link to report |
| Devon Energy Production Company L. P. | 341 | link to report |
| Murphy Exploration and Production USA | 328 | link to report |
| Parsley Energy Operations, LLC | 314 | link to report |
| EP Energy | 287 | link to report |
| Apache Corporation | 283 | link to report |
| CrownQuest Operating, LLC | 227 | |
| Penn Virginia Corporation | 223 | link to report |
| COG Operating LLC | 217 | link to report |
| Hunt Oil Company | 202 | |
| Linn Energy, LLC | 188 | link to report |
| EXCO/HGI JV Assets, LLC | 177 | |
| Chevron USA Inc. | 176 | link to report |
| DE3 Operating LLC | 165 | link to report |
| Discovery Natural Resources LLC | 165 | link to report |
| Atlas Energy, L.P. | 143 | |
| Omni Oil & Gas, Inc. | 132 | |
| Callon Petroleum Operating Company | 132 | |
| Matador Production Company | 124 | |
| Laredo Petroleum, Inc. | 121 | |
| PDC Energy | 111 | link to report |
| SilverBow Resources | 110 | |
| SandRidge Energy | 107 | link to report |
| FELIX ENERGY HOLDINGS II, LLC | 105 | |
| Diamondback E&P LLC | 105 | |
| Athlon Energy Operating LLC | 102 | |
| Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation | 100 | |
| BP America Production Company | 100 | link to report |
| Ovintiv USA Inc. | 99 | |
| Comstock Oil & Gas | 97 | |
| Surge Operating, LLC | 86 | |
| Steward Energy II, LLC | 83 | |
| Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. | 83 | link to report |
| Cimarex Energy Co. | 83 | link to report |
| Ensign Operating LLC | 69 | |
| Energen Resources Corporation | 65 | |
| Unit Petroleum | 65 | |
| HighPeak Energy Holdings, LLC. | 63 | |
| Centennial Resource Production, LLC | 62 | |
| American Energy Permian Basin | 62 | |
| Newark E&P Operating, LLC | 59 | |
| Texas American Resources Company | 59 | |
| Rockcliff Energy Operating | 59 | |
| Sabalo Operating, LLC | 58 | |
| Rosetta Resources | 57 | |
| Shell Oil Company affiliate | 56 | |
| Guidon Energy Management Services LLC | 56 | |
| Ring Energy, Inc. | 56 | |
| EnerVest, Ltd. | 54 | |
| Forest Oil Corporation | 52 | |
| Halc?n Operating Co., Inc. | 52 | |
| Stonegate Production | 52 | |
| Talisman Energy USA Inc. | 52 | link to report |
| Lime Rock Resources, LP | 51 | |
| Valence Operating Company | 50 | link to report |
| Continental Resources, Inc | 47 | link to report |
| Sundance Energy | 46 | |
| Lonestar Resources, Inc. | 45 | |
| Grit Oil and Gas Management, LLC | 41 | |
| WPX Energy | 41 | |
| TEP Barnett USA, LLC | 41 | |
| PRI Operating, LLC | 41 | |
| Endeavor Natural Gas, LP | 41 |
As of this date, many companies continue to publish disclosures without full quantity data.
Quantity omissions in Open-FF data sets
For Open-FF data sets, although we detect and flag omitted data, we do not attempt to fill it with estimated values. Instead we leave the values as “no data” so that any aggregate calculations are not compromised by data not directly reported by the industry. In cases in which a user wishes to use an estimate, we suggest using the median PercentHFJob value for that chemical as a proxy. From there, a mass can be calculated from the “job_mass” in the data set.
Title image credit: Becky Mansfield (modified by author)