RES Water Butler LLC employees, from left, Joshua McCaslin of Butler, Tim Nugent of Pittsburgh and Nathan Blystone of Butler go about their daily routine. Seven of RES’s nine full-time workers are from Butler County.submitted photo

Water reused to drill wells

Submitted by XTO Energy

Water is among the most important elements of the well completion process required to free natural gas for production after a well is drilled. XTO Energy, which uses an advanced water recycling program, has found an innovative way to protect the environment, save water resources, reduce truck traffic, cut operational costs and generate jobs — all at the same time.

Over the past few years, XTO Energy has managed a variety of operations safely and responsibly in Butler County. They include dozens of wells in 11 townships, with more planned in 2015 and beyond as the company continues to grow locally.

In its Southwestern Pennsylvania operations, XTO Energy uses about 6 million to 7 million gallons of water to complete each well, on average, according to Matt Thomas, the company’s water coordinator. As part of the well completion process, water mixed with sand and a small amount of additives is injected into the well to fracture the shale to get the gas flowing.

For a frame of reference, 6 million to 7 millions gallons of water is equal to:

n The amount of water New York City consumes in about 10 minutes

n About 2.2 percent of the amount of water used in car washes every day.

Some of that water stays underground. The water that returns, commonly called produced water, is treated at a local water treatment facility, RES Water Butler LLC, and reused in future well completion operations, Thomas said.

Today, XTO Energy is reusing nearly 100 percent of all produced fluids in new well completion operations.

Since RES Water Butler opened in 2013, XTO Energy has recycled about 31 million gallons of produced water. About 10 percent of the water used in each new well completion is now recycled water.

“Our priority at XTO is to develop natural gas safely and responsibly,” Thomas said. “And that means using our shared resources wisely and constantly seeking ways to innovate and advance our practices. Our water recycling program is the perfect example.”

And the future is promising. Thomas explained that through this process, the company has not found a limit to how many times water can be recycled and reused to effectively complete a well and bring it into production. The only water that needs to be disposed of is when the recycled amounts surpass well completion needs and storage capacity is exceeded because of gaps in the drilling and well completion schedule.

“XTO is ahead of the curve in recycling water,” said Andrew Kicinski, president and CEO of Reserved Environmental Services, which operates RES Water Butler LLC. “It shows they are sound environmental stewards. By utilizing treatment facilities in their operational footprint, they are able to significantly reduce the amount of freshwater they use as well as truck traffic on the roads.”

RES Water Butler LLC opened in November 2013 at 215 Hicks Road in Renfrew, not far from XTO Energy’s cryogenic facility. It is one of three RES facilities in the region, and the only one in Butler County.

Nine full-time employees work at the facility, which supports between 16 and 18 total jobs, such as administrative support, truck drivers, maintenance and others. Because of RES’s commitment to hire local workers, seven of the nine full-time employees are from Butler County; the other two are from Pittsburgh.

“The impact of the industry is monumental,” Kicinski said. “The oil and gas industry is growing, and one day it will be bigger than the steel industry was in Pittsburgh.”

Water resources are protected through strictly regulated exploration and production practices in Pennsylvania, where companies must have water-use plans approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection. Although wastewater recycling is not required, the practice is becoming more prevalent throughout the industry.

According to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, many member companies, including XTO Energy, have pioneered large-scale water recycling technologies. In the Marcellus shale region today, about 90 percent of produced water from wells is recycled, the MSC reports.