TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to a system and process fluid and water management associated with hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

The oil and gas industry has tremendous demands for water (fresh, brackish and saline) to deliver proppants to stimulate wells and create permeable pathways for oil and gas to move to wells where it can be brought to the surface and produced into a myriad of products. The process is known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking (“frac” or “frack” for short). Conventionally, this water is obtained by a variety of means such as surface water supply, groundwater (fresh, brackish and saline) which is pumped from wells and transported via trucks or piped to the areas where it is needed. This is usually done at a considerable cost to the oil and gas operator. In many cases, this water is not near the areas where the fracking is taking place. This creates a situation where the operator has to rely on multiple subcontractors to deliver the water where it is needed on time for a frac job.

For environmental reasons and cost, the current trend is to reduce the use of potable fresh water and convert to brackish or saline water to frac the wells due to the perceived notion that the oil and gas industry is taking a disproportionate volume of fresh water from surface and groundwater supplies.

Furthermore, the oil and gas operators are also faced with expensive disposal costs to manage the produced water that is generated when the spent frac water fluids are no longer able to be utilized in fracking by either treatment or recycling efforts at the land surface.

Operators and disposal well companies are faced with concerns of seismicity due to the placement of too much water in an area that may be faced with an active fault. Therefore, water sourcing and water management costs for hydraulic fracking are escalating and making production of valuable hydrocarbons more expensive. Increased trucking costs, the danger of trucks loaded with water on the roads, lack of access for pipelines to be laid to transport the fluids are increasingly becoming obstacles to the operator's rights to develop the resources.

Current water treatment technology at the land surface is costly and still leaves residue that must be managed. An environmentally acceptable and cost-effective solution is needed to keep hydraulic fracturing going and maintain a safe and secure supply of hydrocarbons for national security and economic independence for producers.

Systems exist for addressing issues associated with hydraulic fracturing, water sourcing, spent water management and seismic activity. Some of these systems attempt to solve one of these issues, but these systems fail to meet the needs of the industry because they are expensive, incomplete and do not address all of the problems. Other solutions may attempt to solve two of these issues, but these solutions are similarly unable to meet the needs of the industry because they are cost prohibitive and do not address the issue of seismicity. Still other solutions seek to remove trucks from the roads, minimize infrastructure and reduce water use, but these solutions also fail to meet industry needs because they rely on multiple contractors and still fail to address the seismicity issue.

It would be desirable to have a system and a process for hydraulic fracturing which reduced the cost of source water, decreased the cost of managing spent fracking fluids (commonly referred to as “frac fluid”), was environmentally friendly, minimized infrastructure costs and reduced dependency on multiple contractors. Furthermore, it would also be desirable to have a cost effective process that is self-contained and recycles water. Still further, it would be desirable to have a process for reducing use of trucks and disposal wells and eliminating the threat of seismicity. Therefore, there currently exists a need in the industry for a process that provides source water, manages flowback water and eliminates seismicity risk simultaneously, in a cost effective manner.

Despite other attempts to solve the problems associated with existing systems, none of these teach or suggest a material and/or method having the benefits and features of the present disclosure.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides for advantageous solutions to solve the aforementioned deficiencies by providing a process to provide source water and manage produced/flowback water associated with hydraulic fracturing.

In an example, an environmentally friendly, filtering, recycling and capture solution is provided that includes at least some of the following components: (a) a source of produced water and flowback with storage (i.e., used frac fluid); (b) an injection well; (c) a porous and permeable filtering sub-surface (i.e., a filtering zone), non-potable water reservoir; (d) one or more recovery wells; (e) pressure monitoring; and (f) a storage/distribution system for recycled water.

A process according to the present disclosure may also include one or more of the following steps to meet specific water quality parameters as specified by a user: (a) a pretreatment to injection step; and (b) a post-recovery treatment step. Other options may include using facilities for truck loading and unloading to allow for water to be brought in or transported out.

A method of the present disclosure can be advantageous in that it helps: (1) minimize water use; (2) minimize waste generation; (3) reduce the number of contractors needed to coordinate; and (4) reduce and/or eliminate seismicity issues.

Further still, in another example of the present disclosure, a method is provided that: (1) uses the subsurface of the Earth, well below the base of usable quality groundwater as a natural filter to provide source water and recycle fluids; (2) reduces the use of chemicals and natural resources (fresh water) in hydraulic fracturing; and (3) eliminates the seismicity hazard by putting water in and taking water out of the same reservoir.

For purposes of summarizing the disclosure, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the disclosure have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one embodiment of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the disclosure which are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.

