Development of Cost-Effective Systems for 

Handling Produced Water 

June 2013 

Presented at: 

Mississippi Lime Production & Produced Water 2013 

American Business Conferences 

Oklahoma City 

Cecil N. Colwell, Director of Commercialization & Operations 

Chuck Maybee, Operations Manager 
June 2013 

Introduction 

Who is Source Energy Partners?

• Private equity company with main office in Denver. 

• Experienced team of professionals. 

• Active in Mississippian play in SE Kansas since 2011. 

• Extensive acreage position in Eastern Kansas. 

• Currently drilling 5th horizontal well. 

• Still learning the rock and area. 

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June 2013 

Presentation 

• Water handling challenges 

• Disposal volume requirements 

• Disposal well design 

• Disposal system design 

• Other potential solutions 

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June 2013 

Water Handling Challenges

• Large volumes of produced water per well 

• Mississippian is naturally a low oil cut play ~ 5% to 10% 

• Significant dewatering can be required before oil production 

• High initial production rates ~ 5,000 to 7,000 bpd 

• High Chloride content water ~ 85,000 to 100,000 ppm 

• Total volumes of 4 Mbbls of water or more per horizontal 

• Reuse can help but is an insignificant solution 

• No existing infrastructure for magnitude of water 

• Historically vertical well production with low rates ~ 20 to 200 bpd 

• Few commercial disposal wells and those not designed for horizontal 

rates now required 

• New horizontal well volumes make trucking impractical so...

Onsite disposal or pipeline to central disposal is 

most economical solution 

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June 2013 

Disposal Requirements 

Assuming: 

• An average 5% oil cut in the system 

• 200 ft of stimulated reservoir thickness 

• 10% average porosity 

• An average 80% water saturation 

• 160 acre drainage with 20% recovery 

3,200,000 bbls 

of water to dispose of per well 

with 50% in the first 5 years 

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June 2013 

Disposal Rate Forecast 

Example of development drilling

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June 2013 

Disposal Well Design 

Required rate is primary well sizing variable

Hydrostatic - Arbuckle Pressure 

Maximum Surface Pressure Approved by KCC 

Maximum Rate From Forecast ~24,000 bpd 

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June 2013 

Disposal System Design 

System should be scalable for development

1 SWD well / 8 horizontal wells 

4 sections of development

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June 2013 

Disposal Transfer Line Design 

Line sizing using SDR 7 PE4710 HDPE

Hazen-Williams Equation: L =(dP*(150^1.85)*(ID^4.8655))/ 4.52*(GPM^1.85) Hazen-Williams Equation: GPM=((dP*(150^1.85)*(ID^4.8655))/4.52*L)^-1.85 

Sizing for maximum forecasted rates with full field development as an 

end goal results in maximum system effectiveness and useful life.

How much length for a rate How much rate for a length

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June 2013 

Other Potential Solutions 

Hard to match SWD well economics when considering full development 

1 SWD @ $400K / 8 wells with 25.6 MMbbls = $0.015/bbl 

Plus any monthly op cost (pumps, chemicals, etc.)

Other technologies do exist 

• Dual use wells (long string SWD, short string production) 

+ Less expensive than standalone SWD well and no pipelines 

- Not able to take high rates due to tubing size limitations 

• Recycling (filtration or other method to reduce Chlorides) 

+ Reduce freshwater requirements and slightly reduce SWD 

- Not enough demand to eliminate SWD and is more costly 

• Recovery of water to surface use quality for ag use or discharge 

+ Potential revenue stream with water and removed solids 

- Initial cost about the same as drilling SWD + $/bbl op cost

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June 2013 

The Bottom Line 

For the Mississippian play in our part of the world 

Economics require produced water underground disposal 

Early area development with few horizontals = 1 SWD / Horizontal 

Full development with 2 horizontals / section = 1 SWD / 8 Horizontals 

The Arbuckle formation enables Mississippian development. 

Source Energy Partners 

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