Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Most oil & gas wells produce a significant amount of water for each barrel of oil – sometimes 6 or 7 barrels of water for 1 barrel of oil
It costs money to bring to surface, money to treat if reused, and money to dispose of again
Reinjection is beginning to be associated with increased seismic activity in some areas of the country
Instead of being a liability, it could be an asset Industrial Construction Agricultural
What is produced water and why the interest?
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Why characterize and map produced water?
Produced water is highly variable in both quality and quantity and it is important for any secondary user to be able to know the resource
It is useful to have hard data instead of vague assumptions about the volume, quality, and distribution of water – not all water is the same!
How much water are we talking about??
898,598,564 bbls, or~115,800 acre-ft in 2015,
statewide
How much water are we talking about??
1 acre foot ~ 7760 bbls
Where is it produced?
1 acre foot ~ 7760 bbls
Where is it produced?
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NM Water Quality Database
What is the quality like?
• Highly variable – samples in San Juan Basin range from 2000 to 35,000 ppm
• Permian Basin generally much more saline
• Pockets of less saline water in eastern Lea county along margins of central basin platform, esp. Hobbs Grayburg-San Andres units
• Lower (<25,000 mg/l) waters
Distribution by TDS
What is the quality like?Samples with TDS <25,000 mg/l in southeast NM
Count Play Name
376Upper San Andres and Grayburg Platform Mixed-Central Basin Platform Trend
207 Artesia Platform Sandstone
87 Northwest Shelf Upper Pennsylvanian Carbonate43 Leonard Restricted Platform Carbonate39 Abo Platform Carbonate
39Upper San Andres and Grayburg Platform Mixed-Artesia Vacuum Trend
38 Morrow
20 Delaware Mountain Group Basinal Sandstone
14 Wristen Buildups and Platform Carbonate
12 Bone Spring Basinal Sandstone and Carbonate
~5500 distinct wells• 7400 from older
database• Added ~2000 new
samples• New data gives nice
distribution where older data was limited
• Fills in gaps with newer active areas
NOT KNOWN 2456OLD
UNKNOWN 598<1960 5881960'S 6771970'S 9181980'S 8331990'S 10882000'S 8032010'S 1533
What vintage is the data?
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Distribution by play
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
What improvements have we made?Lots of quality control and verification!
• Correct ID’s for many wells that had incorrect names, locations, APIs, in old database
• Cross-checked some data against original scanned image files and corrected errors in data and units
• Deleted previously unrecognized duplicate entries• Standardized information such as pool names, formations, etc• Joined to play and formation information from other sources to get
a better picture of data – what formations or plays are “best”• Determined that a significant number of wells in NW New Mexico
were actually not produced water but groundwater from CPS wells
• Incorporated production and injection volumes• Added almost 2000 new samples• Improved coverage in vintage and in distribution – now includes
more data from Bone Spring and Delaware plays
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Where can I find this data?
• GIS database will be available through WRRI website
• Data via text-based queries as well as whole database will be available from the Go-Tech website
• http://gotech.nmt.edu/gotech
• Contact info: [email protected]
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
What can producers do to help?
• Share their water quality data with the general community –everybody benefits – we get calls every week from producers looking for WQ information
• If you are going to throw away paper forms or have old databases, make sure that we get those
• Develop some kind of standard for reporting quality if you are collecting new data
• Document the data – so much of the older information has incomplete or cryptic info. API number and location info is critical – names and operators change! Units, water depth or source formation, and water type are all useful information.
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Questions?
Petroleum Recovery Research Center, A Division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Questions?