Summary
Shallow-gas fracturing is very prevalent in western Canada. Several thousand
wells are typically drilled and completed in the shallow-gas fields every year.
All these wells are typically hydraulically fractured. Before 1999, after
testing for microtoxicity, the flowback fluid was allowed to be land farmed in
southeastern Alberta. In that year, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board
began more stringent enforcement of Guide 58, which required that flowback
fluid be disposed in a disposal well.
At that time, one operator typically had a project of 300 to 400 wells with
an average of 5 fracs per day during spring/summer. When the fluid could no
longer be land farmed, attempts were made to recycle the flowback fluid. The
chemistry of the surfactant-gel fluid was insensitive to the water quality,
which made the recycling concept successful. Several cost advantages were
achieved, which will be detailed in the paper. These included freshwater costs,
transportation costs, disposal costs, and chemical costs. An additional
advantage that was realized involved a 50% reduction in the freshwater
requirements for a project--a significant additional benefit because several
years of drought conditions have caused water shortages in the area.
This paper will detail the chemistry of the fracturing gel, its field
application, the optimized recycling operation, and the details on cost
advantages achieved, as well as future direction for further reduction in
freshwater usage on a project basis.
© 2009. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
17 November 2008
- Meeting paper published:
19 January 2009
- Revised manuscript received:
5 May 2009
- Manuscript approved:
19 May 2009
- Published online:
30 November 2009
- Version of record:
1 March 2010
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