July-11-2022 - Monday Daily Update - Mohammad Elkady

 

Daily Update - Mohammad Elkady - (July-11-2022)

1.  What did I do today?

Today, I finalized the checklist for the data required for a realistic shale model and I have done more literature review about excess water in Permian Basin

2.  What did I find interesting/Work on? 

Required data

-       Two or three oil producing wells in the Permian Basin (Preferably Delaware)  

o   Production/Injection data

o   Bottom hole pressures

o   Well depth, lateral length

o   Well Completion (Hydraulic fractures, Perforations)

o   Formations sequence and depths

-       Reservoir properties

o   Initial pressure and temperature

o   Bubble point pressure

o   Oil and gas densities

Optional data if available

-       Formations properties (well logs)

-       Relative permeability curves

-       Adsorption data

-       Gas composition (if there’s gas)

-       Natural fractures data

‘RRC Suspends Water Disposal Injection in Section of Permian Basin’ – JPT article

o   Operators of disposal wells in the RRC’s Gardendale SRA, which is north of Odessa and northwest of Midland, will not be permitted to inject below the top of the Strawn Formation, which occurs at around 10,000 feet in depth but can vary

o   RRC staff have seen more than 30 earthquakes greater than 3.0 since December 2019.

o   Operators of existing disposal wells will be allowed to apply to amend their permits for shallow injection such as in the San Andres Formation, the top of which occurs at a depth of about 5,000 ft.

o   The RRC’s action comes following its 23 September request to a half-dozen area oil companies to decrease their daily pumping to fewer than 10,000 bbl.

‘Delaware Basin Case History Details Economic Benefit of Water-Recycling Program’ – JPT article – SPE-204166-MS

o   Regardless of final fracturing design, water consumption during fracturing operations typically exceeds 500,000 bbl, or $375,000 per well at the time of writing.

o   Regardless of the size of the acreage holding, a consistent theme is that atypical horizontal well drilled and completed (D&C) will yield water cuts of 60-90% at any given period in its productive lifespan.

o   SWD costs via trucking, pipeline, or on-lease SWD wells can range between $0.50-$3.00/bbl. As existing infrastructure is exhausted, water handling costs have been projected to rise to over $5.00/bbl. Additionally, restricted access to SWD could cause production curtailments and thus impacting operators beyond direct LOE.

o   Generally speaking, both states encourage re-use of produced water from oil and gas operations with the following specifics:

§  A permitting process is required prior to or following construction and prior to filling a pit or transporting produced water (i.e. via pipeline from a production facility to a pit)

·      Typically includes identifying aquifer depth, pit location/design, and other information

§  Whether temporary or permanent, the pit construction requires a primary and secondary barrier to protect freshwater sources

§  Active pit management including a leak detection system, removing skim oil, and other maintenance measures to ensure environmental protection

o   The total dissolved solids (TDS) exceeded the threshold of most generic friction reducers which typically perform best at less than 50,000 ppm. However, at less than 100,000 ppm, the produced water could be safely defined as mid-brine and would not require a more expensive high-brine friction reducer.

o   A cationic mid-brine friction reducer was recommended to better handle the higher levels of divalent cations (calcium, barium, magnesium, etc.) present in the produced water.

o   Barium and strontium levels were identified to be problematic when blended with the sulfate-rich local freshwater

3.  What will I do next?

Next, I will continue working on the literature review to get a complete answer for where we stand on that issue, in the meantime I will search for the required data for simulation online.