Permian Frac Systems Using Produced Water

In areas where fresh water costs and produced water disposal costs become problematic, operators as well as service companies have shown the desire to use produced and flow back water in field operations to enhance the overall completions economics. This paper shows the experience of new Stabilized Crosslinked Fracturing fluid systems pumped in the Permian Basin (West Texas, United States) using borated produced water with levels of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) exceeding 30,000 mg/L. The new Frac fluid systems are developed for temperature ranges between 120-220 °F and designed to delay the crosslinking time when needed, utilizing the boron already present in the water. In addition to the technical success, the back end costs are significantly reduced by transporting produced and/or flowback water to locations for re-use rather than disposing them into well(s) located miles away. This unique Frac fluid systems approach, which conserves fresh water aquifers and recycles produced and flowback water, has broken the code for recycled water and reduced disposal costs significantly. The operators and the service company have pumped numerous stages using only sock filtration to decrease the level of suspended solids in the waste water. This paper reports laboratory testing and case history data.