MAKING ENERGY: To Frack Or Not To Frac

While the media, the public and now the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary all spell it “fracking,” many in the oil and gas industry don’t. “I would spell it frac’ing,” said Scott Hall, a Denver-based petroleum engineer with decades in the industry. He’s not alone. Many others in the industry spell it either “fracing” or “fraccing,” they never use the “k.”

“The minute I start seeing people spell it ‘f-r-a-c-k-i-n-g’ that’s a red flag that you don’t know that much about the technology—early on. Now it’s starting to become more common now,” said Hall.