Water Injection for oil and gas extraction

This practice appears to be widespread and virtually unnoticed. My understanding is freshwater and seawater throughout the world is pumped into energy producing fields. One small plant on a lake near where I live uses two engines totalling 1800 horsepower to pump water 24/7 into oblivion.

It would be interesting to know how much water is being irretrievably lost worldwide.

Pumping Toxic Water "into oblivion" ??

Oil & gas CLAIM that they are pumping water into areas below the water table. Riiiiiight !
Tell that to the farmers in Saskatchewan who now have the "disposed of CO2" coming up in their fields. This practice will come back to bite us on our a$$es and oil & gas will have "moved on", just you watch.

Moratorium on "fracking" needed in BC

The recent cabinet shuffle has done nothing to sort out the wild, de-regulated chaos of the resource ministries in BC.

What BC desperately needs is sustainability legislation for water, air, soil and natural life, and, subordinate to it, sustainable-use legislation for the resources (gas, oil, timber, forage, non-timber products, recreation, etc).

This will require resource policy, something the Clark government appears to be as baffled about as the Campbell regime. Thank you Ben Parfitt for the wake-up call. Excellent article!

Ben, what happened?

Ben, at one time, you could be counted on to provide a reasoned critique of resource industry practices, sans "the sky is falling" overstatement.

Water use throughout BC, whether for domestic purposes, agriculture or industry, including oil and gas, is an important topic. However, your over-dramatized portrayal of the oil and gas industry use only serves to confuse the issue and raise uninformed alarm among the public. Why, for example, do you use litres to describe the amount of water proposed to be removed from Williston Lake? Wouldn't it be more pertinent (but less inflammatory) to show the amount as a percentage of the total in the lake (which would be a very small number indeed)?

And why do you suggest that fraccing in BC has contaminated water wells, caused household explosions and fires, resulted in kitchen tap water that can be lit on fire, led to airborne discharges lethal levels of hydrogen sulphide, and spectacular fish kills when you know this has never happened here?

I liked your work much better when you did not embellish the facts.

perspective

These kinds of stories drive me nuts, because they take a legitimate, and controversial issue -- water used by the natural gas industry for fracing -- and sensationalize it beyond belief with what look like big, eye-popping numbers.

The 7.3 billion liters (2900 Olympic swimming pools -- nice touch) these two companies propose to withdraw annually is less than 1 per cent of the 74 trillion liter volume of water in Williston Lake. Funny that wasn't explained, eh? The story leaves you with the impression that somehow Hydro's ability to generate electricity would be compromised by that.

Unfortunately, when journalists do this stuff, they wreck their credibility and make me highly skeptical of the rest of the piece.

Pity, because it is an issue that needs to be thrashed out for a whole bunch of reasons, toxicity being probably the biggest. And for all those arguing that there should be a moratorium on fracing -- tell me what you have in mind to replace the billions of dollars that industry pumps into the provincial treasury right now.

Abbott and Costello

I have used the "Who's on first?" analogy quite a few times in comments about the folly of the Liberal government private power dam the river and drain the lake energy policy. Looks like this is another application. We drain the lakes (just like we do with the "run of river" projects)....except in this case we don't do it to generate electricity, we do it to frac for gas. Then, when the reservoir levels are too low to generate electricity, we use the frac'd gas to run turbines to generate electricity.....and throw away the water while we are at it. See link to video. Our legislature doesn't appear much different. I think our mainstream media reporters (I use the term loosely) are busy being in the audience....they don't have a reason to leave the theatre, they get all the popcorn and hotdogs they can eat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M

utter hypocrisy

This *will* impact BC Hydro's ability to generate power. Water levels fluctuate from year to year and in low reservoir years BC Hydro imports power to meet demand. What is galling is how the government is simultaneously extolling the desprate need for electricity "self-sufficiency" and hence pursuing a policy premised on the massive subsidizaion of private power development through long-term contracts for huge amounts of IPP power, at around three times the market rate. The hypocrisy is incredible.

total volume

actually, the "live" useful volume of Williston is considerably less than the "total" volume...thus the effect of this useage is greater....and the water used is not returned to "the system"....and the effects are more during times of year with low water levels..and the amount presently requested is surely to increase 10 fold in the coming years.....and...what about NAFTA? There will now be little question the water is a required commodity used in the production of a good...ultimately the production of a good by a US owned company...and...and...

ahem...

When we are discussing the amount of water that can be used for any purpose - drinking, recreation, mining, fracking - what is important is the RENEWABLE supply. Canada, for example, has a large portion of the world's standing water, but has 7% of the renewable supply. So the amount of water that can be drained from the reservoir is a percentage of what portion is renewable, not the total volume - unless, of course we find it acceptable to drain the reservoir in its entirety. Of course, given climate change, estimates as to rainfall etc. (the renewables) may have to be revised.

Many municipalities in Canada have experienced drinking water shortages in the past decade, and water will most certainly be scarce - the majority of Canda's water drains northern watersheds while the majority of the population clusters along the borders at the south. Add to that that groundwater has never been mapped - we simply do not understand the movement of groundwater, that Canadians are at the top of the list in usage of water among the countries of the world, that inumerable watersheds face pressures beyond what is sustainable...

Are you prepared to give up your drinking water? How much? Would you forego your daily shower, for example? And to echo the point of the article, why is there no public conversation about this in BC?

At this moment water is sold to the highest bidders in BC and other juridictions: the needs of a golf course, or a mine, outweight the needs of a fish-bearing stream. Of course, it is not just the fish that will suffer in this equation. The movement of water is a central function of how our very landscape is formed; central to both life and the well-being of humans. It is simply barbaric beyond words that dollars outvote the concept of watershed management every time.
To repeat, barbaric...

NE BC Natural Gas Sector

The Horn River, Montney, and Cordova Embayment basins in NE BC potentially will make BC Canada's wealthiest province over the next decade.

Nexen's CEO Romanow has publicly stated that the volume of natural gas in the Horn River Basin alone equals the volumes found in all of Alberta.

And natural gas revenue is what made Alberta the wealthy petro state that it is today.

Fracking is part of the process involved in these basins. The chemical mix represents less than 1% of the injection process.

Furthermore, Oil and Gas Activities Act, which came into effect last October, contains regulations that specifically address drilling of shale gas wells and hydro-fracturing. Water stewardship is also addressed in regulations and companies are required to dispose of chemicals safely.

Environment technology companies, such as Ridgeline Energy Services Inc., provide on-site services for the treatment, reuse, and recycling of produced and flowback waste water in gas well fracturing and flowback water from operations in N.E. B.C.

As for the NE natural gas sector itself, companies such as South African SASOL have taken a $2 billion equity position in the Montney basin. As a world leader in liquid conversion technology, SASOL is also looking at setting up a natural gas to liquids facility to produce diesel and other liquid fuels.

Several pipelines are also on the drawing board for west coast LNG ports and export to Asia.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Shale+could+herald+unparalled+wealth/4435487/story.html#ixzz1Gb01HdaH

The NE natural gas sector could finally provide the BC government to:

1. Reduce the HST from 12% to 5%;
2. Eliminate MSP premiums;
3. Further lower the overall tax regime;
4. Provide additional funds for infrastructure, education, health, and social services;
5. Pay-off the provincial debt;

Of course, in BC, dummies do exist that want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

Water

Water is definitely not a commodity and should not be treated as such. It is the life blood of the planet. Living things can go without food for days maybe even weeks but, not so with water without which all life is dead. Air and water it seems are on the corporate agenda to be classified as commodities to trade for profit, air through the carbon tax is already being taxed. It's time to stand up and say enough is enough or our grandchildren will have no semblance of freedom of life, it will be taken by corporations, if they can not come up with the required homage.

It's pretty good deal for big oil and gas as they get to basically steal the commons water with the bribed politicians blessing then they get to enter onto a farmers land and with the stolen water get to do a bit of geological destruction through fracking that quite often destroys the aquifer leaving the farmer with unusable and possibly toxic and in some cases flammable water where he once had potable life giving water he is left with poison.

Ya just gotta love the depravity of it all.

Are we safe here?

Perhaps this is not the right forum to ask this question, but with that nuclear reactor self-destructing in Fukushima, one might be forgiven for wondering just where that wind blows when it blows out to sea and saves the people of Japan from radioactive poisoning?

@ Driftwood

The short answer is 'no'...we in North America certainly will not escape some consequences. But follow the logic of Cool Hand, above: we need only make ourselves rich enough to escape the consequences of radioactive poisoning - or a shortage of water.

I wonder if the wealthy in Japan believe that at this moment?

Alberta

Alberta the wealthy petro state is not an example of anything our province should aspire to. Alberta is running a deficit and has cut royalty rates so low they make more money off gambling and booze than off royalties.

A reply to blackie and reallife

Ladies or Gentlemen,

Just a couple of points in response. First, Talisman's and Canbriam's proposed water withdrawals may, indeed, amount to just 1 per cent of the total volume of water in Williston Reservoir. But at what point in time and under what conditions? And who is to say that bids by fracking companies to divert water from the reservoir will stop at just two proposals? And if they do not stop at two proposals, who will be the judge of what constitutes sustainable rates of water withdrawals now and in the future?

The public has a right to know what regulators operating on their behalf think of such questions and how they plan to address critically important issues surrounding cumulative impacts. The thrust of my article was to point out that by and large the public generally - and First Nations particularly - do not know. They are in the dark as to what regulators think in this regard.

And not just with respect to proposed water withdrawals from Williston Reservoir but from numerous rivers in the region - rivers that fell to 50-year lows and which were subject to water withdrawals 24 hours a day 7 days a week by convoys of water trucks operating in the Hudson's Hope area and elsewhere in the South Peace region last year. Water takings on rivers like the Halfway were eventually halted, only to be lifted weeks later after moderate rains that local farmers said brought little if no relief to local lands and waters. When the water takings resumed in some cases, they resumed at increased daily withdrawal rates as approved by provincial regulators - again in the absence of any opportunity for public review and comment.

I agree wholeheartedly that issues relating to toxicity and the fracking industry are a major issue - and I address that topic among many others in my report for the Water Program at the Munk School of Global Affairs - a report that laid out numerous recommendations that would, if followed, more adequately protect the public interest and that included calls for more transparency in water reporting.

As for the host of problems I identify with fracking activities, let me be clear these are documented problems that have occurred in the three jurisdictions I mentioned. If I left people with the impression that all of them have occurred in B.C., I apologize. But one or more of them have occurred in Canadian or American jurisdictions, including a dangerous release of sour gas near the northeast B.C. community of Pouce Coupe in 2009, the cause of which was ultimately traced to frack sand in well piping that caused the piping to fail.

Reply to Ben Parfitt

Thanks for clarifying that you did not intend to leave the impression that your litany of concerns actually have occurred in BC. Could you also clarify that some of the issues you have cited are not related to shale gas but are unproven allegations relating to coalbed gas in the US?

The reason I continue to poke away at this is because of the over-the-top concerns it raises in the article's readers as shown in the following quotes from a post:

"..steal the commons water with the bribed politicians blessing.."

"..fracking that quite often destroys the aquifer leaving the farmer with unusable and possibly toxic and in some cases flammable water where he once had potable life giving water he is left with poison."

Read ProPublica

for extensive coverage on gas production. This is not hysterical anti-industry coverage nor is it the industry can do no wrong BS that some are serving here in comments.

This is a vital issue that should be examined with full public scrutiny and transparency.

http://www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat

Quebec last week imposed a de facto moratorium on fracking.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/charest-dodges-shale-gas-bullet-with-de-facto-moratorium/article1936123/

Cool hand it is not all or nothing

Wouldn't it be awesome if the Liberal government monitored the oil and gas industry and cared even a tiny bit about the environment and the people that live in the north. The oil and gas industry does not have to come to a skreeching halt for this to happen.

jacksonupnorth, BC Liberals

jacksonupnorth, BC Liberals believe in self-regulation, relying on producers to take all necessary precautions to protect the environment.

You know, like they've done in the Niger Delta for 40 years or the way Chevron looks after its affairs in the Amazon basin.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/14/chevron-contaminate-ecuador

Thank you Vivian

You couldn't make up a picture like this. That is the guy from TEPCO, the power company in Japan which owns the faulty GE made 40 year old containment structures at the Fuk Yu Ima Reactor plant. What could he be saying with those wild eyes and that hand clenched like a claw? Maybe, "My job description doesn't include being exposed to twenty times the natural radiation level here in Tokyo! So I'm leaving. Just as soon as I can get my hand unstuck from this company wall." or maybe...
"Would you believe the government is leaving and leaving me in charge?" or
"I'm going home and take my medication now." How about...
"If you believe these lies, there are a few others I'd like you to try on."
but the song playing in his head is definitely Kenny Rodgers:
"You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away, know when to run!"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/06/fracking-arkansas-earthquakes_n_831633.html

Just what we need!

Thanks Lia

Very interesting article. On top of everything else we have to deal with we too have deep well injection sites up here. One was just completed last summer on farmland just outside of Dawson Creek. These things are huge money makers. The company that built the site is called Secure Energy. Now their competition CCS plans on building another one about 20 kilometers away. Not because another site is needed but because they want their piece of the action. There are local residents trying to protest the second site but they are up against the multi million dollar company and of course our provincial government. The Environmental Assessment Office has never turned down an application.

blackie

At 260 litres of water to generate 1000 kwh of electricity, the foregone generating capacity by Hydro at Williston due to water withdrawals is 28 billion kwh. At $0.07 per kwh as a standard average indusrial rate (and ignoring transmission line losses of about 10% for long distance lines) that means Hydro has foregone about $1.9 billion in potential electricity sales to fraccing.

I know math is hard, but something isn't making sense here. Wouldn't it be cheaper to beef up the transmission lines, add a couple of generators at Williston, and sell the excess to a congress that wants truly clean power? Do we have to throw our clean water away to pump up wells, half of which are capped after flow-testing to take advantage of a future rise in prices?

By the way, IEEE has some stunning numbers about water usage for other forms of power generation. The results are scary!

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/environment/how-much-water-does-it-take-to-make-electricity

Kuhl Hound

THe natural gas basins won't make this province anything if we don't start charging royalties on gas sufficient to the opportunity cost we're passing up. There's a royalty holiday on now - less than 1% for nearly all new gas, and 4-11% on all old gas. Making it dependent on market price means we're getting just a pittance now. Hell, we get more for letting comipanies drill for gas than we do on pumping and shipping it! Some petro-state!

We're throwing away our inheritance for a pittance.

But of course you know that, speaking as an player in the shale gas plays yourself.

NE Sector gas won't provide for any benefits for this province
- no new schools for kids,
- no increases to welfare rates for disabled,
- no new housing for homeless,
- no new health facilities for the people - because this government doesn't believe in charging its friends a fair price for a valuable one-time natural resource bonanza.

Eaasy Coooolly

At the rate we are "crediting" royalties back to the producers there won't be enough to buy a free lunch at a food bank.
Almost no jobs are being created in BC and if you don't believe me get up here and look around. Alberta Advantage Allover. So do some simple math. No royalties, no income taxes from employment, no license fees from vehicles, little land sale revenue, and how will you pay for your big plans. Just because we produce more gas doesn't mean more revenue as the current production numbers how. Wake up or it will be all gone and you will have nothing to show for it. After all if low royalties were the way to go wouldn't Alberta be rich now, instead of running serious deficits? So far in BC all lower royalties and return gifts to producers have done is deliver us a $60 Billion and rising debt. If Good ol Gordon Campbell and Brad Wall had supported Ed Stelmach when he wanted to raise royalties a bit some good may have come from the much trumpeted western provinces trade agreement. Danny Williams did it all by himself and ended up retiring at about 90% popularity. Contrast with Campbell's 9%. Bad advice I guess. The whiners in Calgary and Texas could always head for Venezuela or Libya. We'll be ok without some of them anyway.
Hopefully the propane fracturing method will get perfected and we can get over the water problem as it is and will be THE problem.