Water is an essential component of Chesapeake’s deep shale gas development. Chesapeake uses water for drilling, where a mixture of clay and water is used to carry rock cuttings to the surface and to cool and lubricate the drillbit. Drilling a typical Chesapeake Haynesville Shale gas well requires approximately 600,000 gallons of water.
Water is also used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, where a mixture of water, sand and other additives are pumped under high pressure into the deep shale to create small fissures, or fractures, in the rock that allow natural gas to flow. Hydraulically fracturing a typical Chesapeake Haynesville horizontal deep shale gas well requires an average of 5 million gallons. Normally, a hydraulic fracturing operation is only performed once during the life of a well. In comparison, this is the same amount of water that flows past Shreveport, Louisiana, in the Red River every 57 seconds.
Technological advancements in drilling and hydraulic fracking are precisely why the Haynesville Shale stands to provide such a benefit to the region and our country. And yet, the amount of water used for all drilling and fracking operations in the Haynesville Shale are only expect to increase the amount of water used by less than 1.5%, which is well within the available resources in the region.
When compared to every other viable form of energy produced today, such as biofuels, coal and nuclear, Chesapeake’s deep shale natural gas uses a mere fraction of the overall water resources. And we have a highly innovative water recycling process (Aqua Renew™) in place that is increasing our water efficiency.
Chesapeake utilizes a variety of water sources during Haynesville Shale gas exploration, including rivers, bayous, ponds, lakes and groundwater wells. Chesapeake is reviewing the use of a variety of other water resources, such as treated discharge water from industrial or city wastewater treatment plants, power plant cooling water, marginal groundwater and the re-use of fracturing water. When drilling inside city limits, Chesapeake often works directly with local officials to arrange water purchases from a municipality.