Water - Chemical Treatment and Management

Recycling produced water for re-use in gas and oil fields for hydraulic fracturing and re-injection to maintain reservoir pressure is becoming increasingly important due to the scarcity of this natural resource. This is especially the case when these activities are not near a readily available source of ‘free water’ such as seawater or an aquifer. This paper considers ways to use water management to lower operational expenditures OPEX by eliminating freshwater sourcing, transportation, storage and its treatment as well as the storage, transportation, treatment and disposal of produced or flow-back water. The water management approach enables operators to re-use produced waters in hydraulic fracturing fluids. Pretreatment testing and analysis characterizes the chemistry of the water to ensure an effective fracturing fluid design and to determine the appropriate water treatment solution for every application. By using a comprehensive water treatment suite of technologies, we demonstrate that virtually any oilfield water can be treated. Posttreatment testing confirms the water meets the customer's specific requirements. Integrating water management service technical expertise with water chemistry and chemical treatments maximizes hydrocarbon production, minimizes reservoir damage, and reduces the costs of freshwater sourcing by as much as 90%. The techniques also offer real routes for oil operators to meet regulatory requirements, mitigating environmental impact.