Those Looking for Geoscience input

[SunsetBengal]

(08-08-2024, 02:42 PM)Stewy Wrote: Fluids from frac jobs are recovered by the frac company.  It's part of the process.  The operator doesn't want the frac Co. to leave them in the wellbore because then they will mix with and contaminate the hydrocarbons.  The frac co. counts barrels in and barrels out during the job.  While they are never exact, they count them and if there is a huge discrepancy, they know they have a problem.

Now most wells have a pond where waste waters from the drilling operations go.  It is typically large and lined with plastic and either buried on site or removed (depending on state regulations) after it dries out.

Finally, when one produces HC's, late in life of the field, one can also produce vast amounts of water.  These waters which came from the reservoir and typically pumped back into the reservoir.  However, fluids from wellbore operations are NOT disposed of in this manner.

In the region that I live (SE Ohio) we currently have 3 counties with fracking waste fluid that was pumped into the ground. There is a lawsuit naming several defendants (drilling companies) that will likely drag on for quite some time. I was just curious as to how that material was supposed to be dealt with.