At a meeting on 1st April, 2014, experts from ExxonMobile and other specialists presented their results on the implementation of hydrofracking risk assessment within the framework of the third status report from ExxonMobil. After a short introduction on the current stage of scientific discussions in Germany by Dietrich Borchardt from the Centre for Environmental Research (Zentrum für Umweltforschung-UFZ), experts then report on the subjects of frack fluids, land use, and new concepts for drill rigs.

Below is an outline of the main points covered at this meeting by the representatives of ExxonMobile:

• Frack fluids: further development of frack fluids with regard to the geology or geological conditions of Germany were presented. It was emphasized that the number of frack additives has reduced from ca. 150 (prior to 2010) to ca. 20 in 2014. Besides water and proppants, only clay stabilizer and friction reducer are supposed to be used as additives for hydraulic fracturing in shale gas. For hydraulic fracturing in tight gas, however, more additives (up to 20) are still needed. The efficiency of newly compiled frack additives has to be testing, for example through an accompanying scientific pilot project.
• Land use: surface installations have been improved to be more efficient in terms of the amount of surface space used. This is achieved by forming clusters with up to 20 wells per site, with a land use of ca. 0.9 ha. 
• Drill rigs: an improvement of the drill rig technique results in a reduction of the height of the rig from 59 to 39 m, as well as noise reduction.

All presentations (in German only) can be found here.