The founding commercial application of fracking occurred as a means of well treatment technology and as a means of stimulating oil or gas production. It occurred in either near Duncan Oklahoma, 1949, or the Kansas fields of Hugoton, in 1946. However, the hydraulic fracturing process was not utilized on a large scale until 2003. The present day hydraulic fracturing process that uses higher pressure is deployed in Texas' Barnett Shale. It was when many energy companies started to actively expand the exploration of natural gases. These energy companies gave extra emphasis on shale formations. It included areas such as Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Utah and Wyoming. The expansion in exploration was assisted by a landmark study that was conducted by the Energy Policy Act, in 2004. This study discovered that hydraulic fracturing created no threat to any underground water supplies that supplied drinking water to civilians. It enabled fracking to become exempted by the Safe Drinking Act, in the Policy Act concerning Energy of 2005 known as the "Halliburton Loophole." Clean Water Action states, despite [fracking companies] claim that the chemicals used in the fracking process is safe, some drilling companies have consistently refused to provide a comprehensive list of the chemical additives used in fracking fluid. In the period of over sixty years, manipulation of hydraulic fracturing has developed into a routine technology. It is frequently used as a means to complete gas wells, especially those that are involved in "unconventional productions." These productions are from the "tight shale" reservoirs, used in over a million wells. The various mechanical principles that encompass the hydraulic fracturing process have not changed. The concept of the process is still based on to deliver a powerful force upon a designated depth beneath the earth's surface.
