American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2018 - 65

SpecialReport: Well Stimulation & Completion Technology
(i.e., residual oil in produced water). Biological control is complicated by viable
bacteria in municipal wastewater, and
sulfate and iron reducing bacteria residuals
from other alternate water sources.
Biocides are necessary to prevent frac
fluid water contamination, and specialized
filtration is necessary. Operators go to
great lengths to minimize biological contamination, and some are electing to skip
filtration processes and use chlorine dioxide
to oxidize organics and provide biocidal
protection to their frac fluids. However,
this technique tends to increase corrosion
in oil field tubular equipment and risks
equipment problems in future production.
Another key question is determining
where the treatment should be performed:
at the well pad site, a centralized location
or somewhere else? Logistics is a key
factor in deciding the best approach. As
part of his graduate research at Texas
A&M, Tyler Hussey, now a water resource
engineer at Apache Corp., created an analytical model to compare the cost and
benefits of centralized water storage and
treatment versus onsite treatment and use.
Different water treatment techniques may
use different ways to transfer and store
water, different ways to treat (chemical,
thermal or mechanical) and different ways
to handle waste from the processes.
Using analytical models, completion
engineers can evaluate the tradeoff costs
of more expensive source water quality
and higher chemical costs versus higher
water treatment management to reduce
salinity. With frac water composition manageable by comingling different waters,
frac designers and water treatment service
companies have learned that achieving
acceptable frac water quality has become
less expensive than in the past.
Midstream Water Sector
So incremental improvements in technology, drilling, fracturing, completion
and operations have given the domestic
industry the means to lead the world in
hydrocarbon production. New business
practices have helped. Private-sector capital
investors, seeing a market opportunity,
have created an entirely new upstream industry, the midstream water sector. Procurement of enough water to support
drilling and completion operations has become big business. Water "best management
practices" are being adopted by practically
everyone to improve their operations despite
the great volumes required.
The modern oil field water marketplace
is defined by navigating the path of con-

tacting the owners of water rights, securing
volumes, assuring the quality of the
sourced water and negotiating surface
use agreements. Shale players are making
deals with cities to buy the wastewater
from municipal treatment facilities, and
pipelining water to central surface reservoirs for storage. Operators are contracting
with ranchers for brackish groundwater
from deeper horizons such as the San
Andres or Capitan reef aquifers instead
of fresh groundwater.
The Texas Water Development Board
estimates that more than 20 million acrefeet of water is available in West Texas
and the Panhandle regions. The Texas
General Land Office is leasing groundwater
rights from University Lands to midstream
water providers that contract with shale
companies for the water, then construct
pipelines to centralized facilities for distribution. Pipelines have replaced trucking
for much of water transport. Lay-flat
water lines snake alongside county and
lease roads throughout the basin.
As shale technology moves forward,
one of the key requirements for the future
will be continuing to manage the environmental footprint of all aspects of operations, water management in particular.
In the arid Permian Basin, parts of which
are in the Chihuahuan Desert, water is
precious. The need for proper water management is crucial, considering the longterm environmental impacts and oil and
gas companies' long-term production costs
in shale basins. The industry and government are working to support additional
studies of water treatment and usage.
The water sector will have to develop
more cost-efficient water cleanup technology so that produced water becomes
just another source water for oil and gas,
as well as agribusiness or industrial operations. Analytics technology must be
improved so that water users can determine

the contents of the water quickly and be
assured that a supply source meets the
quality standard for its intended use. And
the industry should learn to work more
closely with the public so that the suspicion
of "new water" can be countered with
successful programs.
Fortunately, as new water treatment
technology is developed in the oil and
gas industry, that same technology can
be adapted and implemented in the public
sector. Then there should be ample freshwater for the public in the Permian and
other oil and gas-producing regions. r

DAVID
BURNETT

David Burnett is an associate research scientist at the Texas Center for
Applied Technology at the Texas A&M
Engineering Experiment Station. He
joined Texas A&M in 1995 as an associate research scientist in the Harold
Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, and served for 19 years as the
director of technology for the department's Global Petroleum Research Institute. Burnett's research interests
include well completion technology, formation damage, horizontal well stimulation and profile control technology.
He is a distinguished member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Burnett
holds a B.S. and an M.S. in chemistry
from Sam Houston State University, and
an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.

Cunningham To Expand West Virginia Operations
CHARLESTON, W.V.-Cunningham
Energy LLC says its Lions Paw four-well
pad is producing at a rate exceeding 10,000
barrels of oil a month. The company reports
two wells on the pad brought on line-the
King No. 19H and King No. 18H-are producing more than 100 barrels a day, and
are being held back with considerable pressure on the backside and tubing.
"Current production, along with the
previous results we have shown, prove that

shallow horizontal oil production is viable
in West Virginia," assesses Ryan Cunningham, principal and operating partner with
Cunningham Energy. "Many of the shallow
sand oil fields in West Virginia have tremendous potential, but have been overlooked
because of the focus on shale plays."
According to Cunningham, the company is planning to drill multiple horizontal
programs in the West Virginia counties
of Clay and Kanawha.
r
DECEMBER 2018 65

American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2018

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