Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Johnnie Joe on October 12, 2010 at 3:26

Mainly highly concentrated salt water (~3times that of sea water). There will be some frac water (fresh water with added chemicals, gels, foams, etc.) but that will be produced in the first few weeks. The main problem that doesn’t seem to get mentioned much is that there can be natural gasoline or condensate in with this salt water. It can also have natural gas in it that is flashing off still but unless the well just dumped a lot of water this would be small amounts if any. Most producers will try to separate wells that produce high amounts of condensate themselves but if volumes are lower it might not be worth it and the condensate will go with the salt water.
All this salt water has to go somewhere and that is where the salt water disposal well comes in. Here the tank truck that can hold around 130 barrels (~5,460 gallons) dumps it’s load where it typically will go into a gun barrel first. This is a large tank that will separate the oil (condensate) and water. They can then sell that and get paid to inject the water into their injection well. Not a bad gig.
Here’s some good info about salt water injection wells from the RRC…
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/about/faqs/saltwaterwells.php

Common Disposal has a site just north of San Augustine on HWY 96 and is in the works on another out towards Hemphill on HWY 21. As long as there is gas flowing there will need to be salt water trucks hauling water. Sometime operators will run salt water lines to get to the injection sites but that is typically where truck traffic just won't be allowed or the operator drills it's own injection well.

Hope that answers your question some...

Permalink Reply by Johnnie Joe on October 12, 2010 at 4:13

On the drilling mud I don't know so much. I know they will try to reuse it as much as possible because it does cost money and sometimes take it to commercial drilling fluid disposal sites. On horizontal directional drills (HDDs) for pipelines the drilling mud will sometimes just be laid out on the ROW or open fields to dry. It is mainly just bentonite and water and can actually green things up a bit. Not so sure that would be that case for oil or gas well drilling mud since the hydrocarbons, chemicals, salt water, etc. could contaminate it.

Permalink Reply by Charlie Duke on October 12, 2010 at 6:02

Thanks J J thats helps. I wondered why the trucks did not have any hazardous diamond placards on them and figured it must be water or something. It would seem if there was any hydrocarbon contamination though there would be placards.
I wonder if there is any way to get some of that used mud disposed of on my land. I have a pond that needs something to seal it and hear that bentonite is a great way to seal a pond. I had a guy tell me to go see the tool pusher on the rig to see if that was possible. What do you think.

Permalink Reply by Johnnie Joe on October 12, 2010 at 6:30

Yeah you would think they should have placards. I think out there in SA there really isn't too much condensate and I don't know the law on the placards. Some wells will have a 3 phase separator and have a tank just for condensate and others for salt water. Now I would think those trucks would have placards for sure that haul that condensate. You might see them here and there though because some San Augustine wells have produced condensate. Here's this year on the RRC, looks like there isn't any the past few months though? Probably just traces of it I guess.
Date -Condensate (BBL)
Jan 2010 -1,499
Feb 2010 -2,211
Mar 2010 -4,519
Apr 2010 -3,124
May 2010 -2,199
Jun 2010 -1,842
Jul 2010 -1,847
Aug 2010 -0
Sep 2010 -0
Oct 2010 -0
Total -17,241

I would go for the HDD rigs rather than the well rigs for the used mud for sure. I have heard you can plug leaks on ponds with that too. Now if they can just sell you some at their cost and it is just bentonite that is safe, heck yeah!

Permalink Reply by ledlights on February 1, 2011 at 11:23

On a side note - I believe that human beings have consumed (more or less safely) a lot of bentonite.  My understanding is that it has been a primary ingredient in some of those ridiculous colon cleanse/purge/wash/lube/detoxify/etc. etc. kits.  I hear that you can get kind of plugged up if you don't use it right.  Ya think?  This is purely 3rd hand information and in no way represents personal experience.