Proposed Analysis from the

Well File Review

Technical Workshop Series:
Well Construction/Operation and Subsurface Modeling

Jeanne Briskin and Nathan Wiser

EPA-Research Triangle Park April 16, 2013

EPA Study of the Potential Impacts of

Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water
Resources
EPA Study Goals:
Assess whether hydraulic fracturing

may impact drinking water resources

Identify driving factors that may affect

the severity and frequency of impacts

For more information:
http://www.epa.gov/hfstudy
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Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle

Wastewater Treatment and
Waste Disposal
Wastewater
Treatment Plant

Recycling Facility

Flowback and
Produced Water

Disposal
Well

Wellhead

Chemical
Mixing

Water Acquisition
Surface
Water

Ground
Water

Well Injection

WATER CYCLE STAGES

Water Acquisition Chemical Mixing Well Injection

Flowback and Produced Water Wastewater Treatment and Waste Disposal

Primary Research Questions

What are the potential impacts on drinking water resources of:

Water Acquisition

Large volume water withdrawals

from ground and surface waters?

Chemical Mixing

Surface spills on or near well pads

of hydraulic fracturing fluids?

Well Injection

The injection and fracturing process?

Flowback and
Produced Water

Surface spills on or near well pads

of flowback and produced water?

Wastewater Treatment
and Waste Disposal

Inadequate treatment of
hydraulic fracturing wastewaters?

Well Injection
Secondary Research Questions
How effective are current well construction practices

at containing gases and fluids before, during, and

after fracturing?
Can subsurface migration of fluids or gases to
drinking water resources occur, and what local
geologic or man-made features might allow this?

Ongoing Research Projects

Literature Review
Service Company Analysis
Well File Review
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Subsurface Migration Modeling

Retrospective Case Studies

Well File Review

GOAL
Identify practices or factors that may impact drinking water resources
Identify Hydraulically Fractured Wells
Provided by nine hydraulic fracturing service companies
Fractured between Sept. 2009 and Sept. 2010

Select Wells for Well File Review

Select statistically representative sample of wells from nine oil
and gas operators of various sizes
Wells include different geographic areas and completion types

Extract and Analyze Well File Data

Well construction practices
Hydraulic fracturing practices, including water acquisition and
wastewater disposal
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Well Locations
Oil and gas production wells

Shale gas basins

(EIA, 2011)
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Example Well Completions

Note: Not to scale; conductor casing, wellbore holes and cement not shown
Surface
casing

Ground Surface
True vertical depth
is highly variable

Intermediate
casing

Production
casing or
Open hole

Liner

Hydraulically
fractured
perforations
or open hole

Vertical Wells
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heel

toe

Horizontal Well Deviated Well

Information Requested
Geologic maps and cross sections
Daily drilling and completion records
Mud logs
Open hole logs, such as porosity and resistivity logs
Description of well casings installed
Cased hole logs, such as cement evaluation logs
Pressure testing results of installed casing
Up-to-date wellbore diagram
Pre- and post-hydraulic fracturing reports, including

volumes/additives used
Source(s) of water used
Chemical analyses of fluids (used in treatment, water zones,
offset locations, flowback)
Microseismic monitoring results
Spill/incident reports

Proposed Graph for Analysis

Generic Well Diagram

Number of Wells

Cement

Cement

Diagram not to scale

Cement

Cement

Vertical
Separation

Inherent Protectiveness
LESS

HF Zone

Vertical Separation between HF Zone and

Ground Surface (Bar Graph)

MORE

Distance (feet)
If multiple zones are fractured,
distance between ground surface and
uppermost zone is graphed

Proposed Graph for Analysis

Generic Well Diagram

Number of Wells

Cement

Cement

Diagram not to scale

Cement

Cement

Top of Cement
Vertical
Separation

Inherent Protectiveness
LESS

HF Zone

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Vertical Separation between HF Zone and

Top of Cement (Bar Graph)

MORE

Distance (feet)
If multiple zones are fractured,
distance between top of cement and
uppermost zone is graphed

Proposed Graph for Analysis

Generic Well Diagram

100%

MORE

Cement Bond Index

Measure of bond quality
(0-100%) obtained from
cement bond logs

Cement Bond Index

Cement

Cement

Cement

Cement

Diagram not to scale

Distribution of Cement Bond Indices

(Box and Whiskers Plot)

Zonal isolation indicated

LESS
0%

HF Zone

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Distance Interval Above

Uppermost Perforation (feet)

Proposed Graph for Analysis

Generic Well Diagram

Cement

Cement

Are water zones present?

Are hydrocarbon (HC)
zones present?

Percent of All Casing Strings

Cement

Cement

Diagram not to scale

Partially- or Un-Cemented
Interval

HF Zone

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Zones and Degree of Cement

(Bar Graph)

Inherent Protectiveness
MORE

LESS

Fully
No HC HC Only
Cemented or water

Water
Only

HC and
Water

Zones in Partially- or
Un-Cemented Intervals

Proposed Graph for Analysis

Top View

Distance to Nearby Faults (Bar Graph)

Distance

Distance

Number of Wells

Vertical Wellbore

LESS

Separation between
Wellbore and Fault

Distance (feet)

Horizontal Wellbore
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MORE

Other Potential Factors of Interest

Surface casing setting depth vs. drinking water resource depth
Trend in water usage fresh vs. recycled
Flowback volumes and disposition
Patterns of additives used as a function of geologic lithology treated
Pre-stimulation casing test pressure vs. maximum treatment pressure
Spills and the remedial actions taken during and after hydraulic

fracturing
Degree of monitoring and other data available in file to assure the
operator that conducting hydraulic fracturing is protective of drinking
water resources
Examples:
Formation water sampling to confirm presence/absence of underground

source(s) of drinking water

Frequency of cement evaluation (i.e. cement bond logs)
Annular monitoring during hydraulic fracturing
Offset well monitoring during/after hydraulic fracturing
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Session Outline

Finding the drinking water resource (Williams)

Well construction and integrity (Syed)
Cement to isolate and hydraulic fracture (Tipton)
Cement challenges (Badalamenti)
Leaky wells (Ingraffea)
Systems to verify barriers (op de Weegh)
Field level isolation (Carey)
Different well experiences (Hemenway)

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