Abstract
Geochemical data for more than 120,000 oil and natural gas wells from the major sedimentary basins in the USA are listed in the USGS National Produced Waters Geochemical Database [1]. In this summary, we report and discuss the geochemical data on produced waters obtained from published literature and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) from close to 4,000 new oil and gas wells in Colorado. We emphasize geochemical data of produced waters from shale and tight reservoirs that have increased dramatically in Colorado since 2011, due to deep horizontal drilling, downhole telemetry and massive multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. These operations require large volumes of fresh water, but contamination of groundwater is the major environmental concern. Also, induced seismicity caused by water injection has been reported from several areas in Colorado, including Trinidad, Raton basin, and Greely, Denver basin. Produced water salinities in Colorado obtained from unconventional oil and gas wells are relatively low, generally less than 30,000 mg/L TDS. Produced water salinities from conventional oil and gas wells overlap those from unconventional wells, but many wells have higher salinities (up to 90,000 mg/L TDS) and different chemical compositions.
Highlights
5 million oil and natural gas wells have been drilled in the USA since 1859, when the first oil well, the Drake Well, was completed near Titusville, Pennsylvania [2]
The data are listed in the updated USGS National Produced Waters Geochemical Database [1]
We report and discuss the new geochemical data on produced waters obtained from published literature and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) from ~4,000 oil and gas wells drilled in sedimentary basins in Colorado
Summary
5 million oil and natural gas wells have been drilled in the USA since 1859, when the first oil well, the Drake Well, was completed near Titusville, Pennsylvania [2]. Detailed geochemical data are available for many of these wells, including locations, perforated depths and types of reservoir rocks, together with the chemical and isotopic compositions of produced waters collected during production of oil and natural gas, or obtained from drill-stem tests [3]. Fractures, which are kept open by the proppant particles, direct the flow of petroleum and brine into the well, that direct it to ground level [7,8,9] In this summary, we report and discuss the new geochemical data on produced waters obtained from published literature and the COGCC from ~4,000 oil and gas wells drilled in sedimentary basins in Colorado. We discuss the water requirements for the drilling and hydraulic fracturing of tight reservoirs as well as the potential for groundwater contamination and induced seismicity associated with this new important source of energy
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