3rd Water Management for 

Shale Plays

Assessing Specific Shale Plays -

Niobrara

Ashwin Dhanasekar

Graduate Research Assistant

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Ken Carlson

Associate Professor

Civil and Environmental Engineering


Water Sources and Demand for the Hydraulic Fracturing 

of Oil and Gas Wells in Colorado from 2010 through 2015

Colorado Division of Water Resources

Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

Colorado Water Conservation Board

http://cogcc.state.co.us/Library/Oil_and_Gas_Water_Sources_Fact_Sheet.pdf
Cities Leasing Water for O&G Development 

 

o Greeley 1150 acre-ft (2011)

o Longmont 540 acre-ft (2012)

o Aurora 

o Loveland not disclosed

o Fort Lupton, Frederick, Firestone

Source: Denver Post 

Noble Energy EcoNode 
Recommendation 9.3.1.

The review team recommends 

that the COGCC and DWR jointly 

evaluate available sources of 

water for use in hydraulic 

fracturing..............how best to 

maximize water reuse and 

recycling for oil and gas 

hydraulic fracturing. 
Colorado Energy Water Consortium 

o Industry/university research center focused on 

natural gas/oil water issues. 

o Collaborative industry/CSU research. 

o Communicate natural gas related water issues 

and solutions to public, industry and others. 

o Enhance curricula and programs within CSU to 

respond to an evolving job market in the energywater resources field. 

 http://cewc.colostate.edu
Colorado Energy Water Consortium 

INDUSTRY

Noble Energy

ENVIRONMENTAL

The Nature 

Conservancy

LOCAL GOV’T

Weld County 

Commissioner

REGIONAL GOV’T

Western 

Governor’s Assoc.

AGRICULTURE

Former Ag 

Commissioner

CONSULTING 

ENGINEERING

CH2M Hill

ACADEMIC

Colorado State 

University

COLORADO 

WATER INSTITUTE

Director
Materials and Energy Balance for Oil and Gas Well

Cflowback

Well

Edrilling Efrac

Ein

Eoil Egas

Qdrill

Qfrac

Qflowback

Qproduced Cproduced

Water 

Treatment and 

Disposal

Qrecycle

Crecycle

Etreat

Q Qevap inject

ENERGY IN

ENERGY OUT

WATER 

IN

WATER OUT
Wattenberg Field
Water Intensity

Cflowback

Well

Edrilling Efrac

Ein

Eoil Egas

Qdrill

Qfrac

Qflowback

Qproduced Cproduced

Water 

Treatment and 

Disposal

Qrecycle

Crecycle

Etreat

Q Qevap inject

ENERGY IN

ENERGY OUT

WATER 

IN

WATER OUT
Water Consumption Per Well
Water Consumption Per Well
Consumptive Water Intensity – Electricity Generation 

370 gal/MWh

175 gal/MWh

< 20 gal/MWh

480 gal/MWh
Water Production

Cflowback

Well

Edrilling Efrac

Ein

Eoil Egas

Qdrill

Qfrac

Qflowback

Qproduced Cproduced

Water 

Treatment and 

Disposal

Qrecycle

Crecycle

Etreat

Q Qevap inject

ENERGY IN

ENERGY OUT

WATER 

IN

WATER OUT
Frac Flowback and Produced Water

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131

Water production, bbl

Day

FB

PW

Separation of 

FF and PW

Example well: Well 70 Ranch BB21-65 HN
Water Production Prediction 
Water Quality

Cflowback

????

Well

Edrilling

1430-6840 MMBtu

Efrac

26-128 MMBtu

Ein

1456-6968 MMBtu

Eoil

303,000-1,700,000 MMBtu

Egas

285,000-1,590,000 MMBtu

Qdrill

(87,500-206,000 gal)

Qfrac

(1,900,000-3,350,000 gal)

Qflowback

(83,300-165,000 gal)

Qproduced

(198,000-4,680,000 gal)

Cproduced

????

Water 

Treatment and 

Disposal

Qrecycle

????

Crecycle

????

Etreat

????

Qevap

????

Qinject

????

ENERGY IN

ENERGY OUT

WATER 

IN

WATER OUT
• Validate the Water Analysis

• Critically evaluate and recommend 

improvements in the Water Analysis 

• Predict the properties of the produced water 

from the analysis

• Develop link to GIS Map to Analyze spatially

CSU’s GIS based Chemistry Tool Project
• Data Collection from Producers

• Analysis 

• GIS Implementation

• Water Quality Analysis

• Chemical Calculator Development

• Integration of GIS & Chemistry Tool

• Development of Application

Field Management Tool 
Water 

Quality Data

Water 

Quantity 

Data

Processing 

into 

Chemistry 

Calculator

Charge 

Balance & 

Equilibrium 

Calculations

Development 

of Link –

Chemistry 

Calculator & 

GIS Map

Final GIS Based Application 

with Custom Tools for 

Water Quality Analysis

Output Excel 

File

Co-ordinates 

Water Data Database File

Production 

Data

ArcGIS 

Geodatabase

Map Service 

Development

Publish 

Service

Development 

of Web 

Application

Using 

Services as 

Layers

Developing 

Web Map

Reconcile 

pH 

Reconcile 

Alkalinity Model Composition Softening to a Set pH

Measured 

pH 

Measured 

Alkalinity

Predicted Solids, TDS, pH, Alkalinity, 

Conductivity, Density

Compare to 

Measured

Solids 

Removed

Recover 

Water - RO

Neutralize to 

a Set pH

Osmotic 

Pressure

Reagents 

Required

Reagents 

Required

Chemistry Output

Water 

Recovery

& Residue

 Chemistry Tool - CalcAq

GIS Tool - ArcGIS

Schematic of Project
• Optimized routing for truck traffic & pipelines

• Group wells for centralized treatment

• Improve models for the treatment processes

• Improve Error Handling

• Wizards to solve chemistry problems

• Improve water analysis, including oil carryover

Future Work
THANK YOU!

• kcarlson@engr.colostate.edu

• ashwin.dhanasekar@colostate.edu