ASSESSING WATER AND PROPPANT USE ASSOCIATED WITH OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION IN THE EAGLE FORD GROUP, TEXAS

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Oil and Gas Waters project, a member of the Energy Resources Program, is in the process of finalizing a quantitative assessment of water and proppant associated with the drilling, completion and production of oil and gas wells in the Cenomanian-Turonian Eagle Ford Group of south Texas. This water and proppant assessment builds upon the recently published USGS 2018 Eagle Ford Group quantitative assessment of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.

In today’s drilling environment, large volumes of water and proppant (primarily sand) are required for hydraulic fracturing to produce hydrocarbons in low-permeability continuous (unconventional) reservoirs. These requirements can include millions of gallons of water and thousands of pounds of sand to hydraulically fracture each well. Water is produced, sometimes in large volumes, along with virtually all oil and gas production, regardless of reservoir type. This produced water may represent a resource, or it may require disposal, depending on water quality and on local water supplies and disposal options. The objective of the USGS water and proppant assessments is to quantify the needed resources to recover the assessed oil and gas resources along with the water production associated with oil and gas production.

At the 2018 GSA meeting in Indianapolis, we presented the framework, methodology and inputs of the USGS water and proppant assessment. In this presentation, we provide an update on our study, specifically analyzing water associated with drilling, water needed for hydraulic fracturing, proppant need for hydraulic fracturing, and produced water over the life of the wells based on historical rates of production.