Shale Water: Turning Dirty Produced Water Into Fresh Water and Salt To Sell

Abstract

Turning Dirty Produced Water Into Fresh Water and Salt To Sell In a little more than a decade, the way water is supplied for fracturing in the Marcellus play has gone from “a truck with a hose in the creek” to “a massive industrial system” for water transport and treatment. The description was offered by Conrad Baston, general manager of civil design for Antero Resources, who has played a key role in a major example of the change: a $750-million system to transport, store, and convert produced water into fresh water for use in its operations in West Virginia and Ohio. The first stage was the most expensive—$500 million spent on 200 miles of buried and temporary pipelines to deliver fresh water for fracturing and 23 large freshwater impoundments to ensure a ready supply of water to fracture ever-longer horizontal wells. The water delivered by the system since 2014 would have required 1.4 million truck trips, and it has also reduced the volume of water drawn from local streams. Stage 1 was part of a larger industry trend. What comes next is different. It is a one-of-a-kind $275-million plant that will convert 60,000 B/D of dirty, high-salinity water into fresh water and salt when it is fully operational next spring. Drilling Slowdown Sparks Water Trading It is known that a well injecting a lot of water near a big fault can lead to earthquakes. The problem is, more often than not those faults are not known until after a tremor. “There was a time in the Marcellus where nearly every barrel of water produced was needed for the next well fractured. And then drilling slowed and some operators were stuck with produced water and no well to put it in. It was a costly problem to have. The obvious solution was hiring a lot of trucks for the long haul to Ohio where injection disposal costs $8-10/bbl. It was so bad that operators changed their ways and began seeking out competitors to take the water off their hands, said Joseph Frantz, vice president of engineering in Range’s Marcellus division, which was a big buyer. In 2016, when Range reported reusing 99% of its produced water in the Marcellus, it bought enough from others to push that total to 141% of its produced water, exceeding its fresh water use for fracturing, according to the company’s website. “It saved us a lot of money last year,” Frantz said. “It really came out of sharing, and helping each other out.” The volume of water selling has dropped as drilling has come back, but it is still going on, he said. More trading with competitors with nearby wells could allow deals that reduce one the highest costs of water management—moving it. “For us the goal is to be as flexible as possible and able to move water around really cost effectively,” said Frantz. While there are entrepreneurs trying to create water trading markets, Frantz said they worked directly with others to set up deals.