American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2018 - 91

SpecialReport: Northeast Activity Profile
Boulware estimates that produced
fluids recycling can save an average of
$500,000 a well. In 2017, Highland recycled 100 percent of Seneca's produced
fluids, or 5.2 million barrels, plus an additional 2.7 million barrels of fluids generated by and received from third-party
operators.
"The challenge nationwide for oil and
gas development companies is to reduce
our carbon footprint and reduce our environmental impact," he emphasizes. "The
goal is to reuse every gallon of water, to
eliminate freshwater services."
Highland reports investing more than
$2 million in water infrastructure in
North-Central Pennsylvania, including
storage and treatment facilities, on-pad
tanks and containment vessels, and a network of water distribution pipelines. Boulware claims that has enabled Seneca to
transport water from the centralized storage
facility directly to Seneca's well pads,
reducing truck traffic on local roads.
Seneca has avoided 70,000 water truck
trips in fiscal 2017, he estimates.
"We don't have to truck water hundreds
of miles," Boulware maintains. "Water
that has been cleaned is meeting any
(state and federal regulatory) standards,
so it would be the same as other water
going through pipes."
Highland treats 5,000 bbl/d of wastewater at the facility, including all thirdparty residual waste, two-thirds of which
originates from local conventional oil
and gas producers. The treatment includes separating residual oil, solids
and minerals from the fluid, leaving a
mixture of primarily salt and water.
Then the oil is recycled and reused by
local petrochemical facilities, and the
water is treated for reuse in Seneca's
drilling and completion operations.
Multiport Flow Selector Valves
Boulware says Seneca Resources also
has demonstrated effective cost-cutting
measures by installing multiport flow selector valves and actuators at its Marcellus
gas separator locations, thus reducing
surface equipment installation costs by
10 percent.
According to Boulware, under conventional bulk and test separator configurations,
individual production wells and flowlines
require considerable piping and multiple
valve connections to the separator housings.
Automated valve manifolds require separate
wiring and controls for each location,
adding to the already burdensome instal-

In 2019, Pittsburgh-based Catalyst Energy intends to begin a 10-15 well horizontal drilling
program targeting the Berea formation on a 5,000-acre lease in Kentucky. The company
says it plans to drill 3,500-4,000-foot laterals with 16 frac stages and pump about 1 million
pounds of sand and projects the program will be economic even if oil prices drop below
$50 a barrel.

lation and maintenance costs.
With Emerson's Multiport Flow Selector Valve, Boulware says, Seneca has
eliminated the need for 16 individual automated bulk and test valves for eight of
its natural gas wells, while still maintaining
the same level of automation for its
bulk/test operation. Not only did that cut
Seneca's capital installation cost by 10
percent, but it also slashed installation
lead time and eliminated future lease operating expenses and maintenance costs,
he details.
The Multiport Flow Selector solution
also eliminates the need for isolation
valves, he adds, so Seneca can operate
the system under full wellhead pressure.
Berea Formation
While most of the focus in the Appalachian Basin is on the Marcellus and
Utica plays, Pittsburgh-based Catalyst
Energy is targeting another formation in
a different area. After spending the last
26 years drilling shallow vertical oil wells
in Northwest Pennsylvania, Catalyst Energy is announcing plans to begin a horizontal drilling program in the Berea formation in Kentucky in January.
"When oil went below $50 for an extended period several years ago, we couldn't get the returns we needed in the sands

we were drilling in," explains CEO Paul
Ryan Rodgers. "We looked hard across
the country and negotiated a (5,000-acre)
lease in Kentucky. The success of horizontal drilling that others had in the Berea
is impressive. It will work at oil prices
under $50. And that is what we have
been looking for: a play that works at
$45-$50 oil."
According to Rodgers, the Berea is only
about 1,300 feet deep, a stratigraphic formation of silty sand with the Sunbury Shale
above it and the Cleveland Shale below,
which serve as the Berea's source rock.
The formation first produced oil in
the early 1900s, he says, but Catalyst
plans to rely on a more contemporary
approach. "It is the same technology for
a horizontal well at 1,200 feet as it is for
a horizontal well at 8,000 feet," Rodgers
contends.
Catalyst Energy plans to drill 3,5004,000-foot laterals with 16 frac stages
and will pump about 1 million pounds of
sand. Depending on the success of its
first foray into horizontal drilling, he
says, Catalyst will drill 10-15 horizontal
wells in 2019.
Rodgers adds that the Berea formation
is about 95 percent oil, with only a small
amount of associated gas.
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NOVEMBER 2018 91

American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2018

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