Paper: Chemical Evaluation Process Review- Qualifying chemicals for oil field application to reduce environmental concerns without sacraficing performance

Environmental stewardship involves not only responsible use of chemicals and materials during drilling and completions, but also includes a thorough understanding potential health and environmental hazard posed by chemicals used in these processes. Recent focus on potential hazards associated with chemicals used in oil and gas production has expanded to include not only chemicals used in treatments such as hydraulic fracturing, but to other applications including cementing and drill fluids. Global focus on chemical disclosure and increased attention on chemicals covered by trade secret protection is driving the industry to assess products used in production processes and consider viable alternatives to address public and regulatory concerns while encouraging products innovation to reduce environmental or human risk. A comprehensive review of products and their components using a scientifically based methodology is fundamental to the identification of potentially unacceptable hazards and can support efforts in product reformulation, where applicable, to produce an efficient and compatible product that may pose fewer or less severe health and environmental hazards.
This paper discusses the aspects of a Chemical Evaluation Process Review (CEPR) that examines products on a component level for various environmental and health hazards in accordance to regulatory standards on a global scale by considering: the presence/absence of specified substances; the likelihood of a product passing a comprehensive OSPAR screen; screening of substances for regulatory lists globally; and a detailed review of environmental, toxicological and physical hazards. In addition this paper will present expansion of the CEPR beyond hydraulic fracturing products as well as acceptance by the industry of environmentally preferred alternative products.