Analysis of Environmental Aspects

of Exploiting Unconventional Reservoirs

T his paper presents an analysis

of the environmental aspects of
the exploitation of unconventional
ment, 10–13 represented biotic or eco-
logical factors, and 14–20 represented
human environment:
affects hydraulic-fracturing
operations.
8. Land Quality—High-quality
reservoirs in order to evaluate the 1. Temperature—Low land results in greater risk
risk of the activity. To this end, the temperatures result in a longer to the environment from an
existing normative framework, the time for recovery; biochemical accidental spill or degradation
natural and socioeconomic conditions processes are slower. Extreme from occupation, erosion, or
of the area, and the applicable temperatures result in operational contamination.
technologies are considered. The technological challenges. 9. Hydrologic Regime—Increased
novelty of this work is the analysis 2. Precipitation—High levels of intermittence of the watercourse
of the factors that determine the precipitation make the land less increases the risk of torrential
environmental risk including stable, raising the risk of water activity, erosion, and flooding,
technologies, environmental conditions erosion, landslides, torrential raising the risk of accidents
at the site, and the legal context in phenomena, floods, and other during the operation phase.
the region. extreme events. 10. Ecoregion—The type of
3. Contour—Abrupt land contour ecoregion affects sensitivity
Methodology changes increase the risk of and vulnerability.
A review and comparative analysis was erosion, landslide, or mass 11. Physiognomic Diversity—A
performed of the general and environ- removal. higher diversity of species or life
mental regulatory framework in Argen- 4. Wind—Frequent and intense forms increases the risk to more
tina where unconventional exploration winds increase the dispersion species because the ecosystem is
or exploitation activities are carried of atmospheric pollutants, more vulnerable and has a greater
out. This analysis was completed with especially particulate matter, biotic wealth.
a review of the effluent-management and can lead to potential 12. Highland Ecosystems—High-
strategy, comparing it with criteria contamination of populated altitude ecosystems are more
used by other countries, especially the or  productive areas. vulnerable to human activity.
United States. 5. Water Depth—Deeper 13. Protected Ecosystems—
In order to perform a preliminary groundwater increases the Proximity to protected
evaluation of the environmental risk, a risk of contamination by ecosystems or species with
structured, conceptual, and qualitative intentional or accidental spills, legal protection presents a
analysis was conducted in specific sec- as well as contact with hazardous greater risk of degradation and
tors corresponding to each of the areas substances. environmental damage.
of exploration and exploitation. 6. Wetlands—The proximity to 14. Infrastructure—The lack of
Depending on the information avail- wetlands (e.g., streams, rivers, roads or paved roads increases
able at the regional level, and based on lakes, and ponds) increases the risk of accidents and leads to
the analysis of satellite images, each the risk of contamination by necessary adaptation, increasing
site was characterized according to intentional or accidental spill. the environmental effects of the
20 parameters. Parameters 1–9 rep- 7. Water Resources—The entire activity.
resented the natural physical environ- availability of water resources 15. Services—A deficiency in
public services (e.g., energy, gas,
water, and sewage) increases the
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
risks and environmental effects
of paper SPE 185546, “Importance of the Study of Environmental Aspects in the
associated with a greater human
Exploitation of Unconventional Reservoirs for Risk Assessment of the Activity in presence and an increase in the
Argentina,” by M.A. De La Zerda and E. Erdmann, SPE, Instituto Tecnológico de demand for natural resources.
Buenos Aires, and R. Sarandón, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, prepared for the 16. Waste Management—The
2017 SPE Latin America and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Buenos availability of integrated solid-
Aires, 17–19 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed. waste-management systems or

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • AUGUST 2018 81

 special- or hazardous-waste-
management systems increases
the environmental risk of
the activity by increasing the
generation of waste.
17. Populated Centers—Proximity
to populated centers increases
the risk of interference with
local activities, the degradation
of essential natural resources
(e.g., water), the restriction of
movement of people and goods,
the competition for natural
resources, the alteration of the
local economy, and spontaneous
immigration.
18. Productive Areas—Proximity
to areas of intense agricultural
activity increases the risk of
interference with local activities,
alteration of the pattern of land
use, degradation of resources,
and competition for inputs and
local labor.
19. Territorial System—The
intervention in unstructured
territorial systems increases
the risk of their degradation
and the alteration of patterns
of occupation and mobility.
20. Historical Areas—Intervention
in areas protected by their
historical or archaeological value
increases the risk of degradation
or damage to local heritage.
For each of the 30 sites considered,
each parameter or indicator was ana-
lyzed and a value was assigned on a scale
of 1 to 5, corresponding to a lower (1) or
greater (5) environmental risk.
Finally, an analysis of exploitation
activity was conducted, identifying for
each stage the main activities, risks, and
environmental effects and possible mit-
igation measures. In addition, possible
technologies for the treatment of flow-
back water and its reuse were analyzed
with respect to their physical/chemical
characteristics and the volume of water
to be treated.
Results and Discussions
Environmental aspects are critical to
the development of unconventional-
hydrocarbon exploitation. In this con-
text, environmental risk includes the set
of factors related to environmental is-
sues that can affect the activity.
82
The following three components
make up the environmental risk of ex-
ploration and exploitation—the envi-
ronmental regulatory framework, the
conditions of the surrounding environ-
ment, and the technology used.
Evaluation of the Legal Framework.
Different types of environmental regu-
lations exist for the exploitation of hy-
drocarbons: general and specific rules
for the activity and the sector. The Ar-
gentine National Constitution, Article
41, explicitly incorporates the right to a
healthy, balanced environment suitable
for human development so that pro-
ductive activities satisfy present needs
without compromising those of future
generations. Other regulatory measures
include national and provincial environ-
mental laws that contain principles of
environmental management.
Preliminary Environmental Site As-
sessment. The 20 indicators defined
earlier were analyzed for each of the 30
selected sites. Remote sensing provid-
ed sufficient information on terrain and
geoforms, land cover, type of vegetation,
proximity to bodies of water, land uses
(e.g., agriculture, livestock, and forest
plantations), infrastructure (e.g., roads
and electric lines), populated centers,
areas of special management (e.g., natu-
ral protected areas and aboriginal terri-
tories), and territorial structure. It also
allowed mapping of study areas. Comple-
menting the analysis with a field visit to
the area under study also can be useful.
The environmental assessment of
the site, together with the evaluation
of the regulations, allows for defining
or adjusting the technological complex-
ity and the environmental-management
system to be used.
Analysis of Applicable Technologies.
Technological innovation plays an im-
portant role in the development of un-
conventional hydrocarbons, to maxi-
mize volumes with minimal production
costs and to consider and internalize
the challenges of fulfilling the environ-
mental norms and conditions, including
natural and social aspects. In order to
evaluate the influence of the technology
used on environmental risk, the main
stages of the activities were analyzed
with identification of the environmental
effects and mitigation measures for
potential risks.
Although all stages of the activity may
be relevant to environmental risk, the
location of aquifers and the depth of res-
ervoirs are critical during drilling, com-
pletion, and hydraulic fracturing. The
completion of wells is the most critical
stage because a barrier failure would
cause contact between the hydrocarbon
and the external environment.
The availability of water is another
important factor. Drilling and fractur-
ing requires a large volume of water,
approximately 20,000 m3/d. The vol-
ume of water used in fracturing is rare-
ly 1–2% of the total water used in the
area; however, if the region is suffering
from water shortages, any water extrac-
tion might cause concern to the pub-
lic. In areas of severe water scarcity, re-
cycling of produced water and mixing
with high-salinity brines that are too
saline for agricultural use is possible,
and surprisingly effective and economi-
cal, in large-scale fracturing operations.
Technology should play an important
role in increasing the water efficiency of
the activity.
Technology plays a fundamental role
in all the stages involved in the exploi-
tation of unconventional resources.
Identifying those stages with greater
risk potential is important in order to
be able to enhance technical and other
mitigation measures.
Conclusions
Environmental risk assessment is a
useful tool at regional and subregional
levels. It can be conducted with back-
ground information and can be comple-
mented with information from remote
sensing and, possibly, a visit to the area.
The result of the analysis of areas
with unconventional reservoirs high-
lights the most-relevant environmental
factors at risk. Together with the eval-
uation of regulations, the assessment
allows for the identification of techno-
logical complexity or management sys-
tems and the areas with the highest and
lowest levels of environmental risk. This
allows for the identification, implemen-
tation, and development of potential
mitigation measures with the objective
of achieving sustainability. JPT
JPT • AUGUST 2018