Inflow: Containment & treatment of inflow water

Challenge:
During the exploration for shale gas a lot of water is needed to pressurise the rock layers and release the gas. The customer wasn’t able to rely on supplies from the local water authority because ensuring drinking water supply to the local population was their first priority.  Our customer therefore needed sufficient water to be stored on site to guarantee that production would not be interrupted. 

The customer already owned some tanks but not enough for the required volume of 1400 m³. The customer’s tanks were not epoxy-lined and therefore risked introducing unwanted particles into the water. Such contaminants needed to be removed prior to the water entering the well. The stored water could not remain stagnant and had to be recirculated to avoid any bacterial growth.

Solution:
A solution was engineered to integrate with the customer’s existing installations. The equipment supplied consisted of four components:

• Provision of 1400 m³ of water storage using 20 x 70 m³ Lined Tanks with specialist manifold ancillaries to ensure an easy connection to the customer tanks under gravity.
• Two 6” Electric ATEX pumps (Duty/Standby) were supplied to transfer the water from the temporary tank farm into the Production area. This was complemented by hoses and valves to ensure simple operation.
• A high flow 8-Bag Filter System with 50 micron bags was installed to remove any particles introduced from the customer tanks. A return loop was included behind the filtration unit to keep the water recirculating.
• Two more lined tanks were delivered to the Production area to hold the water before final entry into the well.

Benefits:
Using the United Rentals integrated solution the customer secured an uninterrupted water supply, ensuring production was never lost. This avoided potential downtime and associated costs. The simple-to-operate equipment and ATEX Zone 1 approved pumps reduced safety risks and complications on site.