SPE-172811-MS

Permian Frac Systems Using Produced Water

Sarkis Kakadjian, Joseph Thompson, Robert Torres, Antonio Pontifes, Amanda Rodriguez,
and Yahia Ait Hamlat, Trican Well Service LP

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference held in Manama, Bahrain, 8 11 March 2015.
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Abstract
In areas where fresh water costs and produced water disposal costs become problematic, operators as well
as service companies have shown the desire to use produced and flow back water in field operations to
enhance the overall completions economics. This paper shows the experience of new Stabilized Crosslinked Fracturing fluid systems pumped in the Permian Basin (West Texas, United States) using borated
produced water with levels of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) exceeding 30,000 mg/L.
The new Frac fluid systems are developed for temperature ranges between 120-220 F and designed
to delay the crosslinking time when needed, utilizing the boron already present in the water. In addition
to the technical success, the back end costs are significantly reduced by transporting produced and/or
flowback water to locations for re-use rather than disposing them into well(s) located miles away. This
unique Frac fluid systems approach, which conserves fresh water aquifers and recycles produced and
flowback water, has broken the code for recycled water and reduced disposal costs significantly. The
operators and the service company have pumped numerous stages using only sock filtration to decrease
the level of suspended solids in the waste water. This paper reports laboratory testing and case history
data.

Introduction
In the US nearly half of the wells hydraulically fractured since 2011 were in regions with high or
extremely high water stress and over 55 percent were in areas experiencing drought. In Colorado and
California, 97 and 96 percent of the wells, respectively, were in regions with high or extremely high water
stress (Freyman, 2014). In New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the majority of wells were in high or
extremely high water stress regions. In Texas, which currently has the highest concentration of hydraulic
fracturing activity in the U.S., more than half of the wells examined (52 percent) were in high or extremely
high water stress regions (Fig.1). Extremely high water stress, using WRIs definition, means over 80
percent of available surface and groundwater is already allocated for municipal, industrial and agricultural
uses.
In The Permian basin (West Texas, United States) one oil company already expects to use up to 1
million barrels (42 million gallons) per day of water over the next 10 years. This goes a long way to
securing water sources that are not fresh, using over 75% over the next several years. Texas Railroad

SPE-172811-MS

Figure 1North American Water Stress & Shale Energy Development

Commission, the states oil and gas regulator, reported a current collective water recycling capacity of 1.5
million barrels per day of 4 oil companies combined (Jacobs, 2014).
Hydraulic fracturing may use as little as 500,000 gallons of water in conventional vertical well
treatments but multiple interval fracturing in horizontal wells may require 4 to 6 million gallons per well.
Figure 2 shows the average use per well by type of production. Slick-water fracturing systems use the
inertial force to minimize the settling of proppants and therefore are not suitable for deep-zone fracturing
due to the excessive applied pressure required at the surface. Crosslinked gel systems, on the other hand,
with high apparent viscosities can carry a wide range of sand loading for deep-zone fracturing at moderate
applied pressures. Using produced water for Crosslinked gel-based hydraulic fracturing can not only
expand the beneficial use of produced water in the oil and gas industry, but may also alleviate the impact
of fresh water supply.
Proper rheological characteristics of fracturing fluids are crucial to the success of the stimulation
treatment. A significant amount of produced water with total dissolved solids (TDS) between 30,000 mg/L
and 120,000 mg/L, boron content as high as 100 mg/L, and hardness levelsbelow and above 2,000 mg/L
are used as base fluids in Crosslinked frac systems. Stable rheological profiles are reported using 100%
produced water, saving the use of over 25 million gallons of fresh water in the completion of over 400
stages with Crosslinked gel systems in the Wolcamp Shale.

Methods and Results

Table 1 shows two average water compositions of produced water in the Wolfcamp Shale, with hardness
levels below and above 2000 mg/L. Table 2 shows the variation in the total dissolved solids (TDS) of

SPE-172811-MS

Figure 2Average Water use per Well by Type of Production

different waters (fresh, slightly saline, moderately saline, saline and sea water) classified by increasing
TDS concentration (Downey, 1977).
Table 1Produced Water Composition

Chlorides
Sulphates
Bicarbonates
Sodium
Calcium
Magnesium
Barium
Strontium
Potassium
Iron
Boron
pH
Specific Gravity
Hardness
TDS

Wolfcamp Shale
Wolfcamp Shale (mg/L)

Produced Water 1 Produced

Water 2 (mg/L)

25,052
555
695
15,180
580
75
7
119
27
3
51
7.37
1.035
1,757
42,352

76,420
236
207
42,400
3,657
674
2
545
98
45
52
6.5
1.096
11,907
124,341

Table 2Classification of water type based on TDS concentration

Water Source TDS Concentration

TDS Concentration (mg/L)

Fresh
Slightly Saline
Moderately Saline
Saline
Sea Water

1000
1,0003,000
3,00010,000
10,00035,000
35,000

SPE-172811-MS

Hydration Curve of Linear Gel System and Rheological Profile of Crosslinked Fracturing Fluid
at Steady Shear
Hydration tests of Guar and guar derivatives were monitored by recording the changes in the viscosity of
the linear gel systems. This was performed by mixing the polymer in produced water at 2500 RPM. The
pH of the produced water was first adjusted to the desired value using a buffer solution, then the proper
amount of guar or derivative was then added to the solution for hydration. Viscosity measurements were
determined using an Ofite Viscometer at 511 s-1 using R1:B1 geometry.
In order to determine the rheological profile of the Crosslinked gel system, the linear gel was first
mixed with a gel stabilizer followed by the addition of a breaker and a crosslinker. The fluid was then
loaded into the rotor of a HPHT concentric cylinder viscometer Chandler 5600 using B2 or B5 bob. The
apparent viscosity was measured at constant shear rate (40 s-1 or 100 s-1, as a function of time.).
Zirconate-crosslinked CMHPG and borate-crosslinked Guar gels, with and without boron scavengers,
were formulated (in this study).
The rheological effects of several parameters, ionic strength and hardness of the water, were evaluated.
Several benchmarks of the Crosslinked gel are used as qualifiers of proper rheological characteristics for
hydraulic fracturing.
Maximum achievable apparent viscosity
Sustainable sand carrying viscosity

(1,500 cp @ 40 s-1 shear rate or 600 cp @ 100 s-1 shear rate)

( 200 cp @ 40 s-1 shear rate or 100 cP @ 100 s-1 shear rate
for over 1 hr)

Since the ionic composition of produced water can vary significantly from well to well, the first goal
of the study is to optimize and examine the impact of ionic strength on the rheological performance of the
Crosslinked gels. Produced water has a high concentration of dissolved salts which does not make it a
good solvent for Guar and Guar derivatives unless different grades of polymer are screened and the
optimum pH is found. Proper hydration of Guar and derivatives is also crucial in achieving the desirable
rheological characteristics. Figures 3 and 4 show the highest yield of 15-25 lb/1000 gal linear guar in
Produced Water 1 and 15-25 lb/1000 gal Carboxymethyl Hydroxy Propyl Guar (CMHPG) in Produced
Water 2 at optimal pH and stabilized conditions.

Figure 3Hydration Chart of Guar in Produced Water 1 @ 72 F

SPE-172811-MS

Figure 4 Hydration Chart of CMHPG in Produced Water 2 @ 72 F

The rheological performance of the optimized 25 lb/1000 gal Guar-Borate cross-linked system @
140F, in 100% Produced Water 1 and fresh water dilution, is shown. Adding oxidative breaker to the 25
lb/1000 gal of guar-borate gel system, prepared using unfiltered-untreated produced water, induces a
further decrease of the viscosity (Figures 5 and 6).

Figure 5Rheological profile of 25 lb/1000 gal of Guar-Borate crosslinked gel system in unfiltered-untreated Produced Water 1. The
linear gel system was hydrated for 3 minutes @ 72F.

SPE-172811-MS

Figure 6 Rheological profile of 25 lb/1000 gal of Guar-Borate crosslinked gel system in 50% Produced Water 1 - 50% Fresh Water. The
linear gel system was hydrated for 3 minutes @ 72F.

Figures 7 and 8 show the overall rheological performance of the 15 25 lb/1000gal of CMHPG
Crosslinked gel system in 100% Produced Water 2 at steady shear (40 s-1) and 140 F. In all tested
conditions, the viscosity of the Crosslinked gel system was higher than 200 cP after 60 minutes of
evaluation. Adding different levels of Enzyme breaker in unfiltered-untreated Produced Water 2 induce
a further decrease of the viscosity.

Figure 7Rheological profile of 25 lb/1000 gal of CMHPG-Zirconate crosslinked gel system in 100% Produced Water 2. The linear gel
system was hydrated for 3 minutes @ 72F.

SPE-172811-MS

Figure 8 Rheological profile of 15 lb/1000 gal of CMHPG-Zirconate crosslinked gel system in 100% Produced Water 2. The linear gel
system was hydrated for 3 minutes @ 72F.

Size Distribution of the Broken Crosslinked Gel Systems In Produced Water

Guar-Borate and CMHPG-Zirconate systems were broken using oxidative and enzymatic breakers
respectively. The Crosslinked gels were placed inside ageing cells, pressurized at 300 Psi and left
overnight inside an oven heated at 140 F. The broken gels were cooled down to room temperature to be
analyzed for size distribution and viscosity measurements. For size distribution measurements, solutions
were centrifuged (1500 RPM for 30 minutes) in order to eliminate the contribution of the dust particles
to the light scattering signal. The viscosity values of the broken gels were measured using a vibro
viscometer SV-10 from A&D Instruments. The size of the broken polymer fragments were measured
using Malvern Zetasizer Nano ZS. The Zetasizer determines the size of the broken polymer fragments by
first measuring the Brownian motion of the particles in a sample using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS).
The particles are illuminated with a laser and the fluctuation intensity in the scattered light is analyzed.
If the particles concentration is small enough (negligible interactions), the hydrodynamic radius Rh can be
deduced from the Stokes-Einstein equation DkT/(6 Rh), with D being the diffusion coefficient, the
solution viscosity, T the absolute temperature and k the Boltzmann constant.
Broken CMHPG-Zirconate systems exhibited much smaller polymer fragments than broken GuarBorates at the microscopic scale as well as the macroscopic scale. CMHPG broken gels showed little
residue compared to the Guar broken gels (Figures 9 and 10). The size distribution of the broken
Guar-Borate Crosslinked system in Produced Water 1 shows polydisperse behavior; while CMHPGZirconate broken polymer fragments were monodisperse with a size ranging from 45.54 nm for 15 lb/1000
gal to 59.99 nm. Similar trends have been previously reported (Kakadjian, 2013).

SPE-172811-MS

Figure 9 Size distribution of 20, 25 and 30 lb/1000 gal of CMHPG-Zirconate broken crosslinked gels formulated in produced water
using 0.4 gal/1000 gal of the Enzymatic Breaker.

Figure 10 Size distribution of 15, 20 and 25 lb/1000 gal of Guar-Borate broken crosslinked gels formulated in produced water using
3 lb/1000 gal of Oxidative Breaker.

Field Testing
Over 400 fracturing stages are being pumped using 100% untreated Wolfcamp Produced, with water
compositions similar to Produced Water 1. Estimated BHST was 140 160F with pump rates up to 35
bbl/min. Polymer loadings of Crosslinked gel systems were varied between 20 and 25 lb/1000 gal. The
total volume of produced water used throughout all stages exceeded 25 million gallons.

SPE-172811-MS

Conclusions
New generations of Guar and CMHPG based Crosslinked fracturing fluids, formu-

lated in 100% untreated produced water, unlocked the code for recycled water to
conserve fresh water aquifers recycling produced and flowback water and reducing
disposal costs. All 15-25 lb/1000 gal Crosslinked gels exhibited viscosities exceeding 200 cP at 40 s-1 or 100 cP at 100 s-1 for at least 60 min.
This innovative fracturing fluid approach saved the use of over 25 million gallons
of fresh water during the completion of over 400 stages in the Wolcamp Shale.
Broken Crosslinked CMHPG gels exhibited much smaller polymer fragments than
broken borate-crosslinked Guar gels.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Trican Well Service LP for permission to publish this paper.

References
Freyman, M, Guide to Hydraulic Fracturing & Water Stress: Water Demand by the Numbers, Cenres
Report, Feb. 2014.
Jacobs, T., As Scarcity Hits, Water Tech Flows In, Journal of Petroleum Technology, October, 2014,
68 p.
Downey, J.S., Armstrong, C.A., 1977, Ground-water resources of Griggs and Steele Counties, North
Dakota: North Dakota State Water Commission County Ground-Water, Studies 21, pt. III, and
North Dakota Geological Survey Bulletin 64, part III, 33 p.
Kakadjian, S., Thompson, J., Torres, R., Trabelsi, S., and Zamora, F., Stable Fracturing Fluids from
Waste Water. Paper 172811-MS presented at the 2013 SPE Unconventional Resources Conference-Canada in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 57 November.