American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2015 - 161

Horizontal wells generally require
more water than vertical or directional
wells, the USGS says, adding that in 52
of the 57 watersheds with the highest average water use for fracturing, more than
90 percent of the wells were drilled horizontally.
The study reports that, although there
has been an increase in the number of
horizontal wells drilled since 2008, about
42 percent of oil and gas wells hydraulically fractured in 2014 still were either
vertical or directional. The ubiquity of
the lower-water-use vertical and directional
wells explains, in part, why the amount
of water used per well is so variable
across the United States, Gallegos notes.
According to the study, watersheds
where the most water was used for fracturing coincided with several shale formations (see Figure 1), including:
* The Eagle Ford, within watersheds
located mainly in Texas;
* Haynesville-Bossier, within watersheds located mainly in Texas and
Louisiana;
* Barnett, within watersheds located
mainly in Texas;
* Fayetteville, within watersheds located in Arkansas;
* Woodford, within watersheds located mainly in Oklahoma;
* Tuscaloosa, within watersheds located in Louisiana and Mississippi; and

FIGURE 1
2011-14 Hydraulic Fracturing Water Use

10-100
101-1,000
1,001-10,000
10,001-36,620
Cubic Meters

* Marcellus and Utica, within watersheds located in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and extending
into southern New York.
While shale gas reservoirs often are
fractured using slickwater, which USGS

notes requires more water, tight oil formations such as North Dakota's Bakken
play tend to use more gel-based hydraulic
fracturing treatment fluids, which generally
contain lower amounts of water.
❒

Study Highlights Frac Sand's Benefits
WASHINGTON-A study from the
Heartland Institute shows industrial sand
mining for hydraulic fracturing has been
"a significant driver of economic growth
across the Upper Midwest." It says if
done in a responsible manner, sand mining
could be an important source of employment and earnings for decades.
The study, Economic Impacts of Industrial Silica Sand (Frac Sand) Mining,
is the second in a series addressing the
mining of industrial silica sand. The series
is written by Heartland Institute research
fellow Isaac Orr and geologist Mark Krumenacher, who is principal and senior
vice president of GZA GeoEnvironmental
Inc.
The sand is abundant in the Upper
Midwest, especially rural Wisconsin,
which the study points out, produces twothirds of the sands used in hydraulic fracturing operations.
"Oil and natural gas account for 35
and 28 percent of our total energy consumption, respectively, and we will continue to need increasing amounts of these
resources in the future," Orr says. "Shale

gas already accounts for 40 percent of
our total natural gas production, and this
figure is likely to grow, meaning fracture
sand mining will continue to be an important part of the western Wisconsin
economy for decades to come."
Demand for fracture sand has led
many counties and municipalities to
process applications for new mines and
processing facilities, the study says. To
make informed decisions about industrial
sand mining, governments must understand the benefits and costs, the study
says.
The benefits include high-paying employment opportunities, increasing regional
economic activity, generating tax revenues
for state and local governments, and improving economic diversity in rural communities that rely heavily on agriculture
for household income, the study points
out.
It adds that the costs include negative
effects asserted by tourism and agriculture,
and whether mining may result in "boom
or bust" economic cycles tied to oil or
gas production, and thus may not be a

sound foundation for long-term economic
prosperity.
The authors focused their analysis on
Wisconsin, the largest producer of industrial
silica sand in the nation, saying the state
had strong agricultural and tourism sectors,
and therefore provided valuable insights
into claims industrial sand mining could
negatively affect those industries.
The study is available at https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/economic-impacts-industrial-silica-sand-frac-sandmining. The earlier Heartland Institute
report, released in May, addresses the
environmental impacts of fracture sand
mining. It is available at https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/environmental-impacts-industrial-silica-sand-fracsand-mining.
❒

Coming In September

Tubulars Technology special reports, surveying long-term supply
and demand fundamentals in the
OCTG market.
AUGUST 2015 161
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