Oilfield Water Management for Sustainable Unconventional Shale Development: Case Histories and Lessons Learnt

It is estimated that United States will surpass Saudi Arabia as the major exporter of oil and liquids. Multi well pad drilling and multi stage hydraulic fracturing has dramatically increased hydrocarbon production in United States. Water is a critical component of drilling, completion and production operations in oil and gas. In order to sustain the current rate of unconventional growth for a cash crunched sector, its imperative to recycle and reuse produced and flowback waters, thereby decreasing the fresh water demand for hydraulic fracturing operation. Proper knowledge and management of oilfield water life cycle can directly impact operational efficiencies and reduce operating costs. Understanding the impact of critical components in oilfield water on fracturing fluids and the reservoir, can enable operators to minimally treat produced and flowback water for reuse.

The key is to take a holistic approach in-terms of technology evaluation, application, treatment, logistics and waste reduction for an economically feasible water management solution. The study will focus on produced water constitution, its impact on reservoir, key technologies used in produced water recycling and treatment, the end result with case histories showing almost 135MM Bbls of water treatment and reuse over last few years.