Research Hypothesis/Question
Researchers Scanlon, Reedy, and Nicot analyzed water use between oil and gas extraction by unconventional and conventional techniques with four objectives. The goal was to find relevant data on hydraulic fracturing for shale oil and gas, the comparison of water use between unconventional and conventional extraction techniques for oil and gas, and water use varies between geographic locations for both extraction techniques (Scanlon et. Al).
Synthesis - Methodology
The Eagle Ford Shale Play and the Bakken Shale Play were the focus of this study due to their hydrocarbon capacity and production made available by hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Each region has …show more content…
Years 2012 and 2013 proved to be the most reliable due to consistent overlap of well-head values within 10% of each other between the databases. Water to energy production in the Eagle Ford projected a total of 40 billion gallons of water used, leading to the recovery of 19.2 billion gallons of oil, 7.3 billion gallons of condensate, and 2.9 Trillion cubic feet of dry gas from 8,301 wells. Mean well depth and lateral length was reported as two miles and one mile …show more content…
By analyzing the densities of each fluid, crude oil is roughly 870 kg/m3 (Liquid Densities 2004), condensates such as butane and hydrogen sulfide range from 2.5-1.434kg/m3 respectively, and natural gas such as methane is .717 kg/m3 (Gases - Density 2003). Secondary oil recovery can use water for flooding to displace the hydrocarbons because it is a cheap and readily available high density fluid at 1000 kg/m3. The difference in density causes the water to displace and separate the hydrocarbons as it forced