Spatial Variability of Produced Water Quality

In Permian Basin

Binod K Chaudhary

May 24, 2016

New Mexico State University Plant and Environmental Science

Study Area

• Western parts of Permian Basin

• Southeastern part of New Mexico and Western part of Texas

• Covers 4 counties in New Mexico and 12 counties in Texas

Delaware Basin

Central Basin Platform

Northwest Shelf

Permian BasinTexas

New Mexico

USGS National Produced Water Database v2.2

Clipped datasets of study area using ArcGIS

Sorted out dataset based on availability of TDS and formation names

Geostatistical analysis

Interpretation of Results

Methodology

Histo

gram

of

TDS

Cont

our

Map

of

TDS

Delaware Basin Central Basin Platform Northwest Shelf

Grou

p-1

Grou

p-2

Grou

p-3 Dep

th a

nd A

ge

Group-1

Group-2

Group-3

Depth

Variability of Water Constituents

Summary • High salinity (~400 g/L) of produced water was found to be

localized within the study area, and the salinity variation characterized both in lateral and vertical directions.

• Lower salinity was found in both the more shallow and deeper formations in Delaware Basin and Central Basin Platform.

• Highest salinity in Northwest Shelf was found in the more shallow formations.

• The observed variability in salinity can be attributed to variability in the history/evolution of the pore water (e.g., different rock and oil/gas exposure, sea water source composition, evaporation, and intrusion of meteoric water).

Acknowledgements

• Dr. Kenneth C Carroll

• Willman Spencer

Thank You!

(Questions?)

Meteoric : TDS <

75 g/L and Cl/SO4

< 50

Brines : TDS > 125

g/L and Cl/SO4 >

50

Mix: TDS = 75-125

g/L and Cl/SO4 <

50

Classification of Produced Water

Met

eoric

Brines

Mix

Stratigraphic Column of Geological FormationsAge

(group) Delaware Basin

Central Basin Platform

Northwest Shelf

Guadalupian (Artesia)

Tansill Yates Seven Rivers Queen Penrose Grayburg

Yates Seven Rivers Queen Penrose Grayburg

Yates Seven Rivers Penrose Queen Grayburg

Guadalupian (San Andres) San Andres San Andres San Andres

Guadalupian (Delaware)

Bell Canyon Brushy Canyon Cherry Canyon Delaware

Cherry Canyon Delaware

Leonardian

Glorieta Avalon Shale Bone Spring Yeso

Glorieta Blinebry Clear Fork Yeso Drinkard Abo

Glorieta Paddock Blinebry Clear Fork Tubb Yeso Drinkard Abo

(Wolfcamp) Wolfcamp Wolfcamp Wolfcamp

Pennsylvanian

Cisco Canyon Strawn Atoka Morrow

Cisco Canyon Strawn

Cisco Canyon Strawn Atoka Morrow

Devonian

Devonian Fusselman

Devonian Fusselman

Devonian Fusselman

Ordovician Ellenburger

Mckee Simpson Ellenburger

Ellenburger