The oil and natural gas industry, and other stakeholders, should collaborate to quantify potential risks of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), according to DNV GL, a global maritime and oil/gas safety consulting and accreditation organization.

The company said it will arrange a meeting in its Houston office Nov. 11 to establish a joint industry project (JIP), begin defining a scope of work, determine funding requirements, develop a timeline and define other contributions from various participants. DNV intends the first phase of the JIP to be finalized mid-2015, with a fracking risk quantification methodology and related recommendations for its use and interpretation as deliverables.

“The objective is to collect and analyze shale gas fracking related data, apply statistical methodologies and then define quantitative measures of fracking risk to both horizontal and vertical portions of a well,” DNV said.

Stakeholders asked to participate include operators, service companies, academics, financiers, regulators and other interested parties.

“By drawing on a wide range of stakeholders we get the best possible foundation to apply widely accepted methods of risk assessment and risk management,” said DNV’s Rich Green, director for unconventional oil and gas in North America.

DNV also recently called for a JIP aimed at the threat to transmission pipelines from microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) (see Daily GPI, Oct. 2). MIC is estimated to account for at least 20% of the pipe corrosion problems in the United States, according to DNV.