Minimize freshwater acquisition costs while maximizing fracturing efficiency
Estimates place the average cost for North America freshwater sourcing and transportation for fracturing operations at more than USD 3/bbl. Even greater is the cost associated with the treatment, storage, and disposal of produced water. Clearly, a simple, effective means for reusing produced water in fracturing operations offers a significant cost savings opportunity for many operators.
With the BrineCare family of fracturing fluids, identifying the proper frac fluid system for use is as simple as gathering a sample of the produced water for analysis. With this sample, Baker Hughes experts can quickly and efficiently determine the optimal BrineCare system based on the total dissolved solids in the water and the temperature of the targeted formation to be treated.
Baker Hughes has developed highly effective fracture fluids, and has used them in thousands of real-world fracturing operations. Our teams know how to turn your produced water into the effective fracturing fluid you need. And, if our screening identifies the need for any treatment of the water prior to application, our experts will develop a program to treat the water just enough for reuse—striking the perfect balance between the highest-quality fracturing treatment and the most cost-effective water reuse program.
With these produced-water frac fluid solutions, you can minimize your HSE footprint, eliminate freshwater acquisition costs, lower your produced water treatment and disposal spend, and achieve superior frac fluid performance.
Simplify stimulation operations with produced water fracturing fluids
The Baker Hughes BrineCareTM systems represent a suite of simple, easy-to-deploy fracturing fluids specifically engineered for fast, effective use in produced-water applications. Each of the four Brine Care frac fluid systems has been pre-engineered to ensure reliable performance with produced water across a specific range of total dissolved solids (TDS) and water temperatures.
BrineCare systems offer superior tolerance to mix waters, including brines, to help operators:
- Minimize produced-water treatment and disposal costs；
- Eliminate fresh water acquisition and transportation costs；
- Protect against delays due to freshwater shortages；
- Ensure reliable stimulation performance；
- Improve health, safety and environment (HSE) performance。
Challenge
For now, the fracturing industry is facing great Challenge: 3+ Billion barrels of water used by the oil and gas industry in fracturing operations; 25+ Billion barrels of water produced by the oil and gas industry; 23+ Billion USD spent acquiring, storing, treating, and disposing of water; Less Than 2% amount of produced or flowback water reused in frac operations.
Solution
4 Unique BrineCare fluid systems ，all the four systems are specially engineered to deliver predictable performance when incorporating produced water from the wellsite.
The Baker Hughes BrineCare™ I system is a high-pH, borate-crosslinked fracturing fluid delivering effective performance in a variety of well stimulation applications.
The Baker Hughes BrineCare™ II system is a premium-performance, high-yielding guar polymer, borate-crosslinked fracturing fluid delivering effective performance in a variety of well stimulation applications.
The Baker Hughes BrineCare™ III system is a premium, high-performance fracturing fluid delivering effective well stimulation in a variety of applications. The system incorporates a highly refined guar polymer derivative and proprietary chemistry to crosslink at a low pH level.
The Baker Hughes BrineCare™ IV system is a premium, high-performance fracturing fluid delivering effective well stimulation in a variety of applications, including high-temperature wells. The system is especially tolerant of high-temperature and high-TDS mix waters.
The experts can help select the optimal BrineCare fluids for your well, based on the total dissolved solids (TDS) present in your source water and the water’s temperature. The engineered the BrineCare IV system to function in waters with TDS levels as great as 300,000+ mg/L and at temperatures as high as 300°F (150°C).
The fracturing fluid system can make a save on one project in freshwater acquisition costs of 800，000USD, and 40,000+ bbl of fresh water eliminated on one job alone.
Case Study
BrineCare Frac Fluid Solution Allows Reuse of Water
An operator wanted to conduct a 10-stage fracturing operation using a conventional plug-and-perf completion on a well in Eddy County, New Mexico, in the Delaware Basin. Water for hydraulic fracturing operations was typically sourced from surface water or freshwater aquifers and piped or trucked to wellsites. In an effort to minimize water sourcing costs and simplify logistics, the operator wished to use produced water to build the fracturing fluid for the well. An initial analysis of the operator’s produced water sources determined that total dissolved solids (TDS) ranged between 250,000 ppm and 300,000 ppm, and water temperature ranged from 135°F to 155°F (57°C to 68°C). The challenge was to reuse water to create an effective fracturing fluid that performed as designed and was environmentally responsible and economically feasible.
Baker Hughes recommended BrineCareTM I fracturing fluid solution, which was created
to enable operators to use their untreated,or minimally treated, produced or brackish water-based fluid for every water profile and temperature range that an operator is likely to encounter. BrineCare I, along with the other BrineCare systems, is engineered to be used with produced water.
The proposed fluid was pretested under the candidate job conditions to ensure its ability to execute the designed fracture treatment. Lab tests were followed by additional field testing prior to pumping the job.
Using the operator’s produced water,42,913 bbl of fluid were mixed and pumped over a three-day operation. Water quality was closely monitored, as it tended to fluctuate throughout the job, especially when the operation began to draw water from the bottom of a large storage tank being used. Near the end of the application, a freshwater cut was added to ensure sufficient water volume to complete the job. These varying water chemistries throughout the multistage stimulation treatment did not affect the performance of the BrineCare I system.
The total cost of using fresh water in the Permian Basin—which includes acquisition, transport to the wellsite, flowback transport from the wellsite, and disposal costs—can range from USD 3 to USD 8 per barrel. In the Permian, the field-level water production is considered high—approximately 20–40% flowback. Using the operator’s produced water to treat this well generated savings over USD 350,000 on freshwater sourcing, transportation, and flowback water disposal costs.
After stimulating and bringing the well online, production rates were compared to offset wells with similar depth and lateral lengths. The target well delivered 20,156 bbl of oil and 279,315 MCF of gas in its first five months of production. These results were consistent with the offset wells, which had been stimulated using freshwater fracturing fluids.
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