Every February in Pennsylvania, a groundhog named Phil waddles out of his burrow to see if he can see his shadow. This year that shadow ought to be sharply defined, as we are not having much of a winter so far.

That kind of sharp relief is needed to explain the oil and gas industry. More public disclosure, heightened safety awareness, cooperation between oil and gas companies to share best practices—all these should lead to greater success for companies and fewer obstacles from the public and governments. It just takes time.

In the Lone Star State, the “mysteries” of fracturing will be in sharper relief because, starting this month, operators of any well permitted on or after February 1 must disclose the contents of their frac fluids, and the amount of water used in the process, on the public website FracFocus.org. Before this rule was passed by the Texas Railroad Commission, Texas operators conducting hydraulic fracs were voluntarily entering chemical data for about half of their wells undergoing fracturing. Now, disclosure will be 100%.

Complying with this rule may be a logistical headache that costs time and money, but we think it is right. At a minimum, the public cannot accuse oil and gas companies of hiding something. What the public does not understand, it fears.

Of course, many people will not care about FracFocus.org or understand it if they log on. Yet much of our daily lives involve things we don’t understand. Do we really think about what is in our soda pop, a lot of our processed food, or household cleaners? Still, we trust them to be safe and we use them, often without question.

Anti-frac critics likely won’t be persuaded of the industry’s good intentions and safe practices, whatever the disclosure. But in any industry, health and safety are increasingly being proven to be good business for the bottom line.

Speaking of disclosure, it is time to hear from the politicians about energy. We applaud the API’s new media campaign, Vote4energy.org, which urges the public to demand that presidential and congressional candidates add energy topics to their public discussion. Even if in the future, alternative energies such as wind, solar and biofuels make up a third of our supply, total global demand for energy will have risen substantially, meaning we will still need as much oil and natural gas as we can possibly produce. How do the candidates propose to handle this issue?

On our side of the table, energy suppliers have to do a better job cooperating with regulators and environmental groups, however onerous, obstructionist—or indeed ridiculous—we think they may be. It does no good to oppose adding the sand dunes lizard out in West Texas to the endangered species list. I don’t know the science behind this effort, if there is any, but I do know this: for any oil industry person to oppose an environmental idea just makes the industry look bad. Sad but true. Image is 90% of everything.

In the future, as E&P companies move into the sensitive Arctic region, safety, communication and sharing best practices will be even more important. Shell is about to drill in the Chukchi Sea. Chevron and Statoil plan to explore in Canada’s portion of the Beaufort Sea.

Safety came up recently from some readers’ feedback. We are glad to get it, for you’re the ones slugging it out in the oil patch and in the high rises, making frac trucks arrive on time, money flow and deals happen. That’s why I’d like to thank the readers who contacted me about the January 2012 cover photograph. It showed a rig worker standing on top of some casing on a pipe rack on location, rolling the pipe with his foot. Clearly, this is an unsafe practice.

These days, on many locations, the pipe rack is no more than 18 inches off the ground, so if a worker slips, he doesn’t have far to fall. But in the end, no one should be standing on pipe, says reader Fred Holmes, former president of the Association of Energy Service Companies. Some rig hands use hand-held devices like a small piece of pipe with a “Y” on the end that they use to roll pipe while standing on the ground, he says. Or, there may be a low platform an employee can stand on to reach the pipe on the higher racks.

We didn’t intend to showcase a questionable action. Thanks for the feedback.

Speaking of feedback, we welcome your nominations for the annual Oil and Gas Investor

Excellence Awards for the year 2011. Who follows in the footsteps of prior winners such as Jim Hackett, Floyd Wilson, Noble Energy and Range Resources? Please e-mail me a few lines about worthy companies, individuals, finance or M&A deals. Categories include: Executive of the Year; Financing of the Year; Best Discovery; Best Field Rejuvenation; Best IR/Turnaround Program; and Best Corporate Citizen. Or use the form at OilandGasInvestor.com. Nominations are due by March 1. The winners will be honored at our annual Energy Capital Conference, June 7.

For more commentary from Leslie Haines, see OilandGasInvestor.com.

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