Potential Use of Oil-Field Produced Water as Base Fluid for Hydraulic Fracturing Operations: Effect of Water Chemistry on Crosslinking and Breaking Behaviors of Guar Gum-Based Fracturing Fluid Formulations

Abstract

Abstract Though, only few hundreds of hydraulic fracturing jobs are carried out in California, however, the use of oilfield-produced water resulting from conventional oil production operations for preparing fracturing fluid formulations appears a great alternative for unlocking the potential of Monterey shale without putting burden on precious fresh water resources of the region. The present experimental study reports on the crosslinking and breaking behaviors of guar-gum based fracturing fluids formulations prepared using synthetic but representative oil-field produced water samples. The results suggest that the base fluid composition had little effect on the crosslinking behavior when crosslinked formulations were subjected to high shear rate. On other hand, breaking behavior of the studied fracturing fluid formations was affected by the guar gum concentration used for preparing the formulations. The efficacy of a commercially available bio-degradable breaker in breaking in cross-linked formulations was also evaluated at elevated temperature up to 185°F. The crosslinking and breaking behaviors of fracturing fluid formulations prepared using oil-field produced water as base fluids were comparable to the behaviors of typical fracturing fluid formations prepared using 2% potassium chloride solution as base fluid. The results of this study are encouraging as conventional oil and gas production operations in California can provide an alternative source of water for base fluid to use in hydraulic fracturing based exploitation of Monterey shale resource in near future. Use of sea water for preparing fracturing fluid formulations for offshore applications will also help in reducing the need of treated sea water for any futre growth of hydraulic facturing technology in offshore environment. It is noted here that the paper is a derivative work of the original paper first published in the Energy and Environment Research Journal (Vol. 6, No. 1; June 2016).