Freshwater Use and Alternatives for

Hydraulic Fracturing Operations

Lee Clapp, Ph.D.,

Rouzbeh Ghanbarnezhad-Moghanloo, Ph.D,

Nima Ghahremani

Texas A&M University-Kingsville

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Source: http://www.worldoil.com/June-2011-Eagle-Ford-Texas-dark-horse-resource-play-picks-up-speed.html

Well Pad in the Eagle Ford Shale

Horizontal Drilling & Hydraulic Fracturing

http://www.findingpetroleum.com/files/sept11/Atle%20Rettedal%20200911%20Finding%20Petroleum.ppt

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Horizontal Drilling & Hydraulic Fracturing

5 Chesapeake/Statoil (http://outrunchange.com/2012/09/)

Water Utilization for Eagle Ford Shale

Roughly 20,000 to 30,000 wells over 15 years.

Roughly 3-7 million gallons used per well.

Roughly 5 to 10 billion gallons per year of water

utilized for hydraulic fracturing over 15 years.

In comparison, San Antonio pumps about 75

billion gallons per year from Edwards Aquifer.

Eagle Ford Shale estimated to account for 5-7%

of water use in 16-county area (Jester, 2011).

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Water Utilization for Eagle Ford Shale

Eagle Ford Shale may account for 89% of total water use in La Salle County by 2019 (Nicot and Scanlon, 2012).

Corrizo-Wilcox aquifer has a limited yield (Hanson, 2009).

Freshwater consumption by oil & gas industry could significantly compete with other uses, particularly if drought persists.

1000’s of Texas farmers did not receive water for irrigation in 2012 due to drought effects (Washington Post, 2012).

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Texas 2012 State Water Plan

“The population of Texas is expected to increase from

25 million to 46 million between 2010 and 2060.”

“If Texas does not implement new water supply

projects or management strategies, the state is

projected to need 8.3 million acre-feet of additional

water supply by 2060.”

“Annual economic losses from not meeting water

supply needs could result in a reduction in income of

approximately $12 billion annually if current drought

conditions approach the drought of record.”

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Alternatives to Freshwater for Fracturing

Substituting brackish water for freshwater.

Substituting wastewater effluent for freshwater.

Fracturing technologies that use other fluids:

• Liquefied petroleum gas (Yoxtheimer, 2012).

• Carbon dioxide foam (Cambell, 2000).

The API Water Management Associated with Hydraulic Fracturing Manual (2002) states: “Non-potable water should be used whenever practicable.”

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12 http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/innovativewater/desal/doc/maps/2010_WUG_BGWplants_TWDBwells.pdf

13 http://www.saws.org/latest_news/Newsdrill.cfm?news_id=824

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Cost Trends

Cost per 1000 gallon including debt service and operations Source: NRS Consulting Engineers

Research Objectives 1. Investigate use of groundwater desalination

concentrate as hydraulic fracturing fluid.

• Characterization of concentrate stream from

groundwater desalination plant.

• Characterization of hydraulic fracturing flowback water.

• Performing geochemical modeling analyses to assess

down-hole scaling potential.

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http://www.total.com/en/our-energies/natural-gas-/exploration-and-production/our-skills-and-expertise/unconventional-gas/presentation/production-technologies-201904.html

Research Objectives

2. Investigate feasibility of using nanoparticle-

stabilized CO2 foam for shale fracturing.

• Assessing feasibility of generating a stable CO2 foam using

nanoscale silical particles.

• Assessing rheological properties of CO2 foam as an

alternative fracturing fluid.

16 http://www.htcenergy.com/images/EORLowRes.gif

Acknowledgements

This research is supported through a grant from the Texas General Land Office’s Coastal Impacts Technology Program (CITP), with additional seed funding from the TAMUK University Research Council.

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