GIS based location optimization for mobile produced water treatment facilities in shale gas operations

Abstract

Over 60% of the nation's total energy is supplied by oil and natural gas together and this demand for energy will continue to grow in the future (Radler et al. 2012). The growing demand is pushing the exploration and exploitation of onshore oil and natural gas reservoirs. Hydraulic fracturing has proven to not only create jobs and achieve economic growth, but also has proven to exert a lot of stress on natural resources--such as water. As water is one of the most important factors in the world of hydraulic fracturing, proper fluids management during the development of a field of operation is perhaps the key element to address a lot of these issues. Almost 30% of the water used during hydraulic fracturing comes out of the well in the form of flowback water during the first month after the well is fractured (Bai et. al. 2012). Handling this large amount of water coming out of the newly fractured wells is one of the major issues as the volume of the water after this period drops off and remains constant for a long time (Bai et. al. 2012) and permanent facilities can be constructed to take care of the water over a longer period. This paper illustrates development of a GIS based tool for optimizing the location of a mobile produced water treatment facility while development is still occurring. A methodology was developed based on a multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to optimize the location of the mobile treatment facilities. The criteria for MCDA include well density, ease of access (from roads considering truck hauls) and piping minimization if piping is used and water volume produced. The area of study is 72 square miles east of Greeley, CO in the Wattenberg Field in northeastern Colorado that will be developed for oil and gas production starting in the year 2014. A quarterly analysis is done so that we can observe the effect of future development plans and current circumstances on the location as we move from quarter to quarter. This will help the operators to make long-term decisions and also they can make decisions about the well pad siting and well densities. Three different scenarios--baseline, retroactive and proactive--were considered to see what could be the proper way to answer the question of optimal fluids management (OFM). Once the locations were obtained the results from different scenarios were compared for piping distances from each well going towards the facility, assuming the pipeline distance as the criteria to be minimized. The results obtained were pretty robust and observed to be fulfilling the intended purpose.