This Excel tool provides an rough prediction of water produced from Noble Energy Inc. wells in the Wattenberg Field in Northern Colorado. Protocols were developed for vertical and horizontal wells based on historical water production data, and by combining these two protocols the tool provides future water production prediction (with 2σ (95%) confidence interval) from input numbers of new wells in every year.
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This study provides an extension of the research by Considine, et al. (2011a) with a more detailed analysis of notice of environmental violations (NOV) from the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale industry. Not all environmental violations result in environmental pollution because many violations are citations for administrative failures or are issued to prevent pollution from occurring.
Download PDFThis study provides an analysis of the volume of water required for unconventional shale gas and shale oil development and how efficiently the water is used. A general material balance is used to assess the life cycle of water and energy resources of 445 Noble Energy Inc. wells in Wattenberg
field in northeastern Colorado. Water use data as well as oil and gas production data were collected from Noble Energy wells and separated by well type (horizontal or vertical) and water use (drilling and hydraulic fracturing).
The project described in this report is the first step in addressing the concerns raised by reports by the State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations, the Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board and other studies. A framework is proposed to assess the lifecycle of water and energy resources of Noble Energy assets in the Wattenberg field. Data from Noble’s Wattenberg wells are used to assess the overall water use and average water intensity in the region as a first application of the general framework.
Download PDFRecently, COGA published Colorado oil and gas industry water usage facts, “Water Use Fast Facts”, which can be found at www.coga.org, under Fast Facts. In summary, the facts estimate water use for oil and gas development at 0.13% of Colorado’s total 2012 water use. That’s 6.5 billion gallons of water for the year at far less than one percent of all water use. These billions of gallons are compared with other users in the state and, despite being “billions” in number, they are the lowest of notable users, such as Irrigation (4497.5 billion gallons/year), Public Supply (315.4 billion gallons/year), and Mining (7.8 billion gallons/year). Also, the one-time use of 5 million gallons for one well are contrasted to water uses we can all relate to, like a Colorado coal-fired plant in one day or 30 Denver-area homes in one year.
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