Northern Great Plains Water Consortium (NGPWC)

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Northern Great Plains Water Consortium
(NGPWC) Bakken Water Opportunities Assessment
Water Resource Opportunities Meeting Bismarck,
ND December 10, 2009
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Northern Great Plains Water Consortium

• The Energy Environmental Research Center (EERC)
  has developed a partnership between the U.S.
  Department of Energy and key stakeholders to
  address critical issues that impact the water
  resources of the northern Great Plains region.

• Stakeholders
• Electrical power generation utilities
• Oil and gas companies
• Industry
• Municipalities
• State agencies
• Other interested entities

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Water Needs
Energy cooling water for power plants, mining
operations, oil and gas development, biofuel
production
Population Increase
Agriculture irrigation, livestock operations,
agricultural industries and processing
Increased demand for energy, food, drinking water
and other goods.
Municipal and Industrial drinking water,
domestic and urban uses, manufacturing
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NGPWC Goals and Objectives

• To assess, develop, and demonstrate technologies
  and methodologies that minimize water use and
  reduce impacted water discharges from energy
  production.
• To evaluate water demand and consumption from
  competing users in the NGPWC region.
• To identify nontraditional water supply sources
  and innovative options for water reuse.

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Bakken Water Opportunities

• Project to assess the technical and economic
  potential to recycle frac flowback water in the
  Bakken play.
• Project Sponsors
• U.S. Department of Energy
• North Dakota Petroleum Council
• North Dakota Industrial Commission Oil and Gas
  Research Council

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Frac Water Use for the Bakken

• Up to 1,000,000 gallons of water used per frac.
• For comparison
• In ND, the approximate volume of water used to
  irrigate ¼ section of land using center pivot is
  1,380,000 gallons per day.
• Typical daily water use for a 50,000-person
  Midwestern city is 10,000,000 gallons.
• Relatively small amount of water for a very high
  value use.

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Project Status

• Samples have been analyzed and/or data have been
  collected from four of five producers
  participating in the assessment.
• Extensive, but not comprehensive, frac flowback
  volumes and water chemistry data.
• Technology review and capabilities assessment.
• Preliminary economic assessment.

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Frac Flowback Water Characteristics

• Relatively low recovery of the original frac
  water within the first 10 days.
• Ranges from 15 to 50 recovery
• Very high salinity in flowback water.
• Salinity levels as high as 200,000 mg/L
• Water chemistry is predominantly sodium chloride
  (NaCl), with lesser amounts of calcium,
  potassium, and sulfate.

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Flowback Water Samples
Original injection volume 20,000 bbl (840,000
gallons)
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Frac Flowback Water Treatment Mechanical Vapor
Recompression (MVR)

• Oil field-compatible
• Robust
• Mobile
• Existing technology
• High treated water recovery

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Bakken Recycling Challenges

• Slow recovery of flowback water
• Relatively low volume initial recovery
• Extremely high dissolved salts early in the
  flowback
• Treatment very challenging, even with the most
  robust technologies
• Treatment very likely not cost-effective in most
  cases

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Current Frac Water Costs

• Acquisition costs
• 0.250.75/bbl raw water cost
• 0.635.00/bbl transportation costs
• Disposal costs
• 0.635.00/bbl transportation
• 0.501.00/bbl disposal via deep well injection
• Total costs
• 2.0011.75/bbl

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Other Non-Conventional Options?

• Access to freshwater for hydraulic fracturing
  continues to be a challenge.
• ND has an abundant supply of marginal-quality
  groundwater that is not a potential underground
  source of drinking water.
• Treatment of non-potable groundwater may provide
  an economical alternative resource.

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Groundwater Treatment Demonstration

• A pilot-scale demonstration is needed to evaluate
  the technical and economic feasibility of the
  approach.
• Likely not the silver bullet, but may provide
  part of the solution.
• The EERC has identified a potential host producer
  for a pilot and has been evaluating various
  technology providers (RO and MVR).

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Contact Info
John Harju 701-777-5157 jharju_at_undeerc.or
g Bethany Kurz 701-777-5050 bkurz_at_undeerc.o
rg Dan Stepan 701-777-5247 dstepan_at_undeer
c.org Energy Environmental Research Center 15
North 23rd Street, Stop 9018 Grand Forks, ND
58202-9018