Re: America’s hidden 60 million barrel a day industry

On 2012-01-17 08:56:29 -0600, chatnoir said:

http://tinyurl.com/7v9njwr


headline:

America’s hidden 60 million barrel a day industry

By John Kemp

The biggest output of the U.S. oil and gas industry is not oil or gas
but dirty water.

Every day, U.S. oil and gas producers bring to the surface 60 million
barrels of waste water, with a salt content up to 20 times higher than
sea water and laced with hazardous chemicals.

For the most part, they dispose of it safely, as required by federal
and state laws.

Most of it is re-injected into oil and gas bearing formations to
maintain pressure, or into disposal formations far below the
freshwater aquifers.

Safe disposal of so much hazardous water should put into perspective
some of the recent concerns about water management raised by opponents
of hydraulic fracturing.

60 MILLION BARRELS

Environmentalists and policymakers have raised concerns about the
massive amount of water used fracturing oil and gas wells, and the
resulting strain on local water supplies, as well as the safe disposal
of fracking fluids and briny salt water brought to the surface from
fracked wells.

Risks to freshwater aquifers are often cited as a key reason to
restrict fracking or subject it to strict new federal regulations.

But the challenges of disposing of waste water contaminated with
hazardous chemicals are not unique to fracked wells, and there is
already a comprehensive framework of federal and state rules governing
safe disposal designed to protect drinking water supplies.

Environmentalists have zeroed in on the huge amount of water injected
into oil and gas wells to fracture rock formations, and the exotic
chemicals added to help carry the frack sand into the cracks, reduce
corrosion and remove excess drilling mud.

Fracturing a multi-stage well can involve injecting millions of
gallons of water under intense pressure, with 3-12 chemicals typically
added to reduce friction and address site specific problems, according
to the U.S. Department of Energy (”Modern Shale Gas Development in the
United States,” Apr 2009).

But the problem of disposing of fracking fluids pales beside the
challenge of disposing of all the briny water produced alongside the
oil and gas, from conventional wells as much as fracked ones.

The average oil well produces 7.6 barrels of water for every barrel of
crude. The water/oil ratio can rise to as much as 24:1 or even 42:1 in
states like Florida and Illinois. On average, 88 percent of the
material brought to the surface from an oil well is water, rising to
98 percent for wells nearing the end of their productive lives.

For gas wells, 260 barrels of water are produced for every million
cubic feet of natural gas.

In 2007, the daily output of the U.S. oil and gas industry was 4.8
million barrels of crude, 66 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 58
million barrels of waste water, according to a study by the Argonne
National Laboratory’s Environmental Science Division (”Produced Water
Volumes and Management Practices in the United States,” Sep 2009).

“Produced water is the largest volume by-product or waste stream
associated with oil and gas exploration and production,” according to
the Argonne study. “The cost of managing such a large volume of water
is a key consideration to oil and gas producers.”

150,000 DISPOSAL WELLS ... (cont)

Republicans think that clean water depresses the market for water and more money can be made if clean water is a scarce privately controlled commodity.
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http://www.boston.com/news/daily/26/ampad.pdf
http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform/myths-and-facts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ43f9KMj9w&feature=g-vrec&context=G2786ac3RVAAAAAAAAAQ


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