The combination of legacy oil and gas production together with exploitation of unconventional resources is driving both subtle, and not-so-subtle changes in certain regions and underground injection formations. As we generate frac flowback fluids and co-produced brine from “tight” unconventional formations, we recycle what we can, and reinject the remaining produced fluids into nearby disposal formations or producing waterflood operations via Class II injection wells.

But after many decades of consistently safe safe and succesful underground injection use (maintaining complete isolation from USDWs), a small fraction of disposal and productive formations are beginning to show signs of stress, ranging from:

• Barely felt induced and anomolous earthsquakes associated with oil and gas operations – which nonetheless are a cause of significant concern to the public – and by extension, landowners, stakeholders, and regulators.
• Reduced formation injection capacity or disposal well pressurization increases – suggesting that injection rates should be “dialed back”, or injection pump pressures be increased, or that water be transported further to more receptive injection formations.

Collectively, these stresses, when encountered, can contribute to cost overruns, impairment to operations schedules, additional oversite to assure regulatory compliance, reduced public goodwill, and impairment of industry’s social license to operate.

EnergyMakers’ advisors work with our clients to identify potentially stressed UIC programs early, and to identify potential future bottlenecks which could be encountered when drilling and completions activities increase.  We help operators and their service providers by providing assurance of operational integrity for current disposal assets, or as required, to  employ risk-mitigating operational practices, or, to develop lower-risk disposal or waste management strategies, thereby avoiding potential cost overruns or threats to operations continuity.

EnergyMaker’s is well-poised to advice in this capacity, in particular, because water management is a continuous supply chain, and optimizing one aspect  may have upstream and downstream implications, which are also areas of expertise within our advisory group.   As water management costs for frac water and produced water comprise an increasingly higher component of O&G production costs, due diligence and integrity assurance of disposal assets is of increasing importance to investors and stakeholders.

In a similar fashion, our seismic experts, hydrogeologists, and completions advisors are well poised to identify potential risks which may contribute to “anomolous” induced seismicity issues occasionally being observed in limited select locations.

A foundation of  regional “macro” risk assessments comes from the insights gained within our commercially published “U.S. Class II Subsurface Injection Wells: Injection and Seismicity Operational Risk Factors” (link.)  This highly focused water management market study,  available for purchase, helps operators, service providers, private equity companies, and midstream companies assess UIC Risk and Opportunities at a macro, regional and national level.

This guidance helps direct attention to possible local issues which we help explore, which may include  identifying lower risk disposal assets, and developing risk mitigation plans for current assets.