Brine Management: Produced Water

and Frac Flowback Brine

David Burnett, Texas A&M University

Editor’s note: This is the third in a The world is changing. The transfor-
series of articles on the great chal- mation from onshore infill drilling and
lenges facing the oil and gas indus- occasional field extension operations to
try as outlined by the SPE Research the rapid development of super major
and Development (R&D) Committee. gas fields throughout the United States
The R&D challenges comprise broad is being called the great gas shale revo-
upstream business needs: increasing lution. This disruptive change is as sig-
recovery factors, in-situ molecular nificant as the advent of rotary drilling
manipulation, carbon capture and in the 19th century.
sequestration, produced water man- Three issues drive this revolution:
agement, higher resolution subsur- • The world’s energy needs are
face imaging of hydrocarbons, and increasing at an exponential rate and,
the environment. The articles in this led by the US and the European Union,
series examine each of these chal- there is a major thrust to move toward
lenges in depth. clean energy.
• In the US, vast reserves of uncon-
White papers covering these chal- ventional gas are technically recover-
lenges are available at www.spe.org/ able within its own boundaries and that
industry/globalchallenges and allow energy security is one of its benefits.
reader comments and open discussion • Most important, technology to
of the topics. White papers are cur- access these resources is advancing at
rently available on the subjects of in- an increasing rate.
situ molecular manipulation, increas- Today we are seeing major develop-
ing hydrocarbon recovery factors, and ments—not only the Barnett Shale,
carbon capture and sequestration with but also the Fayetteville, Haynesville,
additional papers to be added in com- Eagle Ford, and Marcellus shales in
ing months. North America. Together, these and
other developing and prospective gas
David Burnett is director of technology at the Global
Petroleum Research Institute and is the research project coor-
dinator at the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas
A&M University. He is currently the principal investigator and
project manager of the research project, “Membrane Treatment
Options to Allow Re-Use of Frac Flowback and Produced
Brine for Gas Shale Resource Development,” funded by the US
Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority. Burnett served as the managing
partner of the US Department of Energy project, “Field Testing of Environmentally
Friendly Drilling Systems,” representing a joint partnership among university,
industry, and government organizations dedicated to reducing the impact of opera-
tions in environmentally sensitive areas. At the institute, he leads a research team
developing advanced membrane filtration technology to reduce wastewater volumes,
including flowback fracturing fluids, at rig sites. He received a 2006 Hearst Energy
Award for Technology in the oil industry.
shale plays offer the US more than
a 400-year supply of this abundant,
clean-burning fuel.
So why is there a controversy over
development of these resources? One
issue stands out—the environmental
footprint of unconventional gas devel-
opment. Along with this new aware-
ness of the availability of abundant
energy, the environmental impact of
energy production is a critical part of
the equation.
Operating Practices
Driven by Technology
Records showed that the first horizon-
tal well in Texas was drilled near Texon
in the early 1930s. Some 50 years later,
as a result of the industry’s effort to
exploit the Austin Chalk, horizon-
tal drilling technology was improved
and finally accepted by the drilling
industry. In the 1980s, most of Texas
production was from conventional oil
and gas reservoirs, dominated then
(and even now) by the Permian Basin.
And water management technology
for conventional exploration and pro-
duction (E&P) operations perhaps
reached its zenith. During this time,
horizontal drilling technology used in
central Texas began to be adopted else-
where (e.g. the Bakken Oil Shale) and
other fields, where vertical wells did
not allow production rates sufficient to
pay off investments and the numerous
dry holes.
In west Texas in the 1980s, opera-
tors were redirecting their secondary
recovery efforts away from the use
of fresh water in the Ogallala aquifer
as makeup water for pressure main-
tenance, and toward CO2 recovery
projects. Fresh water was too precious
and as water/oil ratios crept higher,
there was copious brine to handle in

46 JPT • OCTOBER 2011

R&D GRAND CHALLENGES
Fig. 1—Growth in US shale gas re-
serves, according to Securities and
Exchange Commission.
practically every field. Reinjection for
pressure maintenance and secondary
recovery became widespread.
Operators spent their capital on
developing infill drilling, reducing
patterns from 160 acres to 80 acres,
and then 40 acre spacing. Centralized
water plants handled produced brine
and if oil content was less than about
50 ppm, it was deemed acceptable for
injection. Standards for solids con-
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48
trol in these brines varied widely:
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects
were experiencing injectivity declines;
isochronal tests measuring wellbore
skins showed large formation dam-
age; and operations fought effects of
reservoir souring from sulfate-reduc-
ing bacteria. Eventually, researchers at
Amoco, Texaco, and Chevron labora-
tories showed the detrimental effect of
excess oil carry-over into formations
and the harmful effects of suspended
solids in the waters and the need for
careful bacterial control.
In 1981, the first Barnett Shale
well, C.W. Slay No. 1, was drilled by
Mitchell Energy in north Texas. This
granddaddy shale development took
off 18 years later with the advent of
large volume, low-cost slick water
fracs using hydrolyzed polyacrylamide
friction reducers, inexpensive cor-
rosion inhibitors, and scale control
agents. Early stimulation treatments
used fresh water from surface water
sources, such as municipal water sup-
plies, and water transport trucks to
bring water to and from well pads.
Frac flowback brines and produced
waters were trucked to salt water dis-
posal wells. Drilling boomed and esti-
mated gas reserves grew from less than
2 Tcf to more than 50 Tcf as gas recov-
eries went from 1% to 2% in the early
1990s to more than 40% by 2010.
Initial results in Fayetteville shale
play came in 2004 as Southwestern
Energy discovered its economic viabil-
ity and was the first company to drill
and successfully produce its natural
gas. Petrohawk reported early suc-
cesses in 2008 in the Haynesville
Shale. Then came the US Geological
Survey report on technically recover-
able reserves in the Marcellus Shale.
Drilling activity spread East and the
E&P industry was transformed in a
few years.
The Pace of Change
Technology changed our industry
and reversed the decline in US fos-
sil energy reserves. The US Energy
Information Administration has fore-
cast that the growth of US shale gas
production is expected to increase
by almost fourfold between 2007
and 2020. Recoverable reserves have
increased more than 40% in the past
four years to more than 800 Tcf. Fig. 1
shows the almost asymptotic growth
in reserves.
Technology has driven this growth.
Many of these technology develop-
ments have been aimed at reducing
the environmental footprint of drilling
operations. Multiwell pads for drilling
are now common. Multilateral well-
bores with more than 20 stage fractures
are being adopted and the record is
more than 40 stages. Lightweight drill
rigs, top drive rigs, and casing drilling
have become common.
Water use for multistage fracs has
risen to more than 10 million gal-
lons. Water is held in large volume-
lined pits or “frac ponds.” The industry
has turned away from frac brine and
produced brine discharge into public
waterways and re-use of frac flow back
brine is gaining acceptance. Truck traf-
fic is reduced by adoption of tempo-
rary surface flow lines for brine trans-
fer rather than high-volume trucks.
Some companies have gone to 100%
recycling of untreated fracturing fluids
despite the industry’s early experience
with poor water quality and impaired
well performance.
Water Management and
Energy Production in 2020
Energy from natural gas will become the
“clean energy” of the US for the fore-
seeable future. Aging coal-fired power
plants will be replaced by gas-fired facil-
ities as the US shifts from coal to natural
gas for electrical power generation. The
drive to reduce development costs with
better bits, drilling fluids, fracturing
fluids, proppants, etc. will enable wells
to be drilled and completed at lower
overall cost. Well plans will require that
water management practices specify
clean, solids-free brines. Chemicals used
in frac operations will be monitored
and frac flowback brines and produced
water will be recycled and contaminant
disposal will be handled by safe envi-
ronmental practices.
Finally, our industry will have
learned its lesson—the lesson that
sound environmental practices are as
essential to operations as safety is in
the workplace. With those practices,
we will have the key that ensures sus-
tainable fossil energy production into
the 22nd century, able to support an
increasing standard of living for the
world’s population. JPT
JPT • OCTOBER 2011