BIG DATA ANALYSIS OF WASTEWATER PRODUCTION FROM CONVENTIONAL AND UNCONVENTIONAL HYDROCARBON RECOVERY PROCESSES

Hydrocarbon recovery from conventional and unconventional resources typically generates large volumes of wastewater, an environmental concern in terms of proper handling, treatment, reuse and disposal. Management costs are among the key factors for oil and gas companies in deciding the fate of produced wastewater. In this study, production data from more than 20,000 oil and gas wells in the Montney Formation, Canada, are analyzed to compare the wastewater management costs from conventional and hydraulically fractured (HF) wells. During the first two years of production, both conventional and HF wells have similar volumetric oil-water ratios. A typical HF oil well in the Montney Formation produces higher volumes of oil, and therefore has a higher gross revenue than a typical conventional oil well. For gas wells, however, an average conventional well has higher volumetric gas-water ratios than an average HF well during the first two years of production. Furthermore, in order to account for the fluctuating nature of oil and gas prices, we created master curves for revenue (i.e., produced hydrocarbon value) and wastewater management costs. The master curves cover oil and gas price ranges of $10-100/bbl and $0.5-5/MMBtu, respectively. Additionally, the master curves account for variations in the local wastewater management costs range of $5-100/m³, and provide a basis for the rapid analysis of wastewater management costs of oil and gas wells.