The Next Frontier: Offshore Hydraulic Fracturing (Seminar Summary)

Land-based hydraulic fracturing has been the subject of extensive discussion and debate in recent years. But offshore hydraulic fracturing has received relatively little attention, despite having been used in practice for many years to stimulate wells where production has declined and where there are offshore shale plays. Emerging awareness of offshore hydraulic fracturing has spurred questions about the nature of the practice, how it has been employed, and the framework for managing it. The webinar convened representatives from various sectors to address these and other questions surrounding the science, law, and policy of offshore hydraulic fracturing. The goal of the webinar was to provide perspective on the growing, yet rarely discussed, practice of using hydraulic fracturing in the ocean setting.