Marcellus waste increase attributable to new rules, errors

http://citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/marcellus-waste-increase-attributable-to-new-rules-errors-1.1190648#axzz1Vf1dbwq2
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: August 19, 2011

Marcellus Shale natural gas drillers in Pennsylvania reportedly produced vastly more fluid and solid waste in the first half of 2011 than the previous six-month period, but changes in reporting requirements and mistakes in data entry account for some of the surge.

More than 34 million barrels of salt- and metals-laden wastewater flowed from the state’s Marcellus wells in the first six months of 2011, according to industry-reported data published by the state Department of Environmental Protection. That is more than eight times the amount reported in the last six months of 2010, despite the fact that drilling did not markedly increase between the two periods.

• Database: Marcellus Shale production (January to June 2011)
http://thetimes-tribune.com/data-center/database-marcellus-shale-production-jan-to-june-2011-1.1190149#axzz1VR8Lf1y7

• Database: Marcellus Shale waste (January to June 2011)
http://thetimes-tribune.com/data-center/database-marcellus-shale-waste-jan-to-june-2011-1.1190150#axzz1VR8Ufhx6

Chesapeake Energy reported the vast majority of the wastewater – 24.5 million barrels – a pronounced spike from the second half of 2010 when the company reported producing only 60,704 barrels of the fluid.

The company attributed the spike to changes in state reporting requirements as well as an increase in production from its wells.

In a change from past practice, the state now requires operators to include all of the wastewater they reuse or recycle not just the waste that is disposed of in the six-month reports, said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources.

“We believe the current advances are more transparent and make more sense,” he said.

Recycling and reuse has become common practice since the state restricted the amount of salty drilling wastewater that can be discharged into rivers from treatment plants that cannot remove all of the contaminants.

In the first half of 2011, operators reused or recycled 29 million barrels of the wastewater that flows back from the wells or about 86 percent of the waste.

About 3 million barrels of the waste was taken to 15 treatments plants that Marcellus drillers have largely stopped using since mid-May at the request of DEP Secretary Michael Krancer.

Another 800,000 barrels of the wastewater was injected into deep disposal wells, mostly in Ohio, according to the state data.

The amount of rock and lubricant waste, called drill cuttings, that is displaced as operators bore to and through the shale also apparently surged in the first half of 2011. The reported cuttings increased by 254 times to 50.4 million tons between the last six months of 2010 and the first six months of 2011.

But 50 million of the 50.4 million tons of drill cuttings were mistakenly reported by EOG Resources, which made an error when it entered the data, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

“EOG inadvertently submitted its original data in pounds rather than tons,” spokeswoman K Leonard said. “EOG should have reported 25,000 tons of cuttings for the first half of 2011.”

The company is submitting a revised report to state regulators, she said.

The actual amount of cuttings produced by all operators was closer to 405,000 tons, compared with 198,000 tons produced in the last half of 2010.

That increase also reflects changes in reporting requirements, Pitzarella said.

The industry did not previously have to include in its six-month reports the cuttings that were encapsulated and buried at well sites. As operators move away from using lined pits at well sites, very few cuttings are being encapsulated and more of it is being reported.

“Most is now going to approved landfills,” he said.

llegere@timesshamrock.com