T6 Energy: Environmental Legacies and Futures

Sunday, 9 October 2022
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
505

BIG DATA ANALYSIS OF WASTEWATER PRODUCTION FROM CONVENTIONAL AND UNCONVENTIONAL HYDROCARBON RECOVERY PROCESSES

Paper number: T6-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:40 AM – 8:55 AM

Authors

Abstract

Hydrocarbon recovery from conventional and unconventional resources typically generates large volumes of wastewater, an environmental concern in terms of proper handling, treatment, reuse and disposal. Management costs are among the key factors for oil and gas companies in deciding the fate of produced wastewater. In this study, production data from more than 20,000 oil and gas wells in the Montney Formation, Canada, are analyzed to compare the wastewater management costs from conventional and hydraulically fractured (HF) wells. During the first two years of production, both conventional and HF wells have similar volumetric oil-water ratios. A typical HF oil well in the Montney Formation produces higher volumes of oil, and therefore has a higher gross revenue than a typical conventional oil well. For gas wells, however, an average conventional well has higher volumetric gas-water ratios than an average HF well during the first two years of production. Furthermore, in order to account for the fluctuating nature of oil and gas prices, we created master curves for revenue (i.e., produced hydrocarbon value) and wastewater management costs. The master curves cover oil and gas price ranges of $10-100/bbl and $0.5-5/MMBtu, respectively. Additionally, the master curves account for variations in the local wastewater management costs range of $5-100/m3, and provide a basis for the rapid analysis of wastewater management costs of oil and gas wells.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-383088

© Copyright 2022 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.