Wastewater

There’s one part of the Marcellus/Utica shale industry that is still booming–and will continue to boom as long as the wells drilled flow oil and gas. What it is? Wastewater injection wells. Sometimes called SWDs, or salt water disposal wells. How can that be? If rigs are being laid down and fracking is vastly reduced–even ceased–how is there any wastewater to dispose of? Good question young padawan. Flowback is the water coming out of the hole right after fracking. But long after flowback is done, a well will still bring up what is called produced water–water from the depths that is very salty with minerals. Hence, salt water disposal wells. As long as wells are producing and not shut in, they produce varying amounts of produced water. Until now, drillers in the Marcellus would typically recycle the produced water and use it for fracking the next well. If they aren’t fracking, what do they do with all of that produced water? It must go to an SWD well. A company called Sourcewater has cooked up a clever service, an online exchange where SWD operators can list their wells and drillers who need to find new places to dispose of their produced water can find someone to take it…
Read More “The One Part of the Marcellus/Utica Industry Still Booming”

Fountain Quail Water Management, a Texas-based wastewater recycler with operations in the Marcellus/Utica, announced earlier this week that the company has a new investor who has ponied up $40 million so they can further expand in North America. As MDN pointed out in a companion story today (see The One Part of the Marcellus/Utica Industry Still Booming), treatment of produced water is booming in all shale plays and likely to continue, even though drilling and fracking has tapered off. Why? Because long after a hole is drilled, water from the depths (water a mile or more below the surface) continues to come out of the hole. Water with a high concentrate of minerals (i.e. “salty”, hence salt water injection wells). You can dispose of such water via injection wells, or you can use a technology like Fountain Quail’s to recycle it…
Read More “Water Recycler with NE Operations Expanding with $40M Investment”

Ever hear of something called a crossover point in oil and gas drilling? No, we hadn’t either. When shale drilling is going full tilt, it uses, and produces, a lot of water. We’ve talked about this before. When you frack and force water down a hole, you get about 20% of it back (the rest dissipates into the rock layer a mile or more below ground). Millions of gallons. You also get, over time, something called “produced water,” or water that already existed in the depths that over time will come to the surface along with the oil and gas you’re extracting. In Pennsylvania most flowback (from fracking) and produced water (or brine) is recycled and reused to drill more holes. But eventually you drill so many holes and get so much brine or produced water out of the ground, you will begin to exceed the level that drillers can re-use it. That is, you “crossover” the point at which you produce more water from previously drilled holes than you can now use. Just last year predictions for the Marcellus were that it would be 5-9 years before crossover of water production. With the radical reduction in drilling in 2016, it may be this year we hit crossover. What do you do with all of that extra wastewater?…
Read More “Drilling Slowdown – What to Do With Excess Produced Water?”