Seawater for Fracking
A PRACTICAL LAND-BASED HYDRAULIC
FRACTURING FLUID PATENT PORTFOLIO
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Eliminates the Need for Fresh, Brackish or Produced Water
Overview December, 2018 - Hydraulic fracturing is creating thousands of new oil and gas (O&G) wells, but requires significant amounts of freshwater, brackish water, or costly recycled produced water. Fields (e.g., the Karoo, Eagle Ford, and Ghawar) are producing vast quantities of O&G via fracturing, but are located in arid regions where freshwater is limited. Local governments and communities have become hostile toward diversion of freshwater for fracturing processes and are moving to limit or prohibit use of freshwater for fracturing (New Mexico State Land Office, in July, 2017, prohibiting future use of the Ogallala’s ground waters for drilling and fracturing). All this is happening as the industry is moving to larger and larger frac water demands, and frac sand demands. Seawater Technologies LLC has a patent portfolio which provides the solution by eliminating the need for local freshwater, especially near the world’s coastlines. Seawater Technologies’ processes are cost competitive with freshwater usage, but have no impact on local freshwater or brackish reserves, providing an attractive, immediate, powerful, and long-term alternative to current practices. Ten years ago, nobody envisioned using produced water or seawater for fracturing; thought to be too saline and hard to manage. Not true today, where high salinity seawater is a welcomed frac water source, after all, the O&G reservoirs of Earth were “born” in ancient seawater; approximately 1.5 times as saline as our oceans today. It only makes good sense to frac with the same salinity as the reservoirs. Summary of our Patents Five (5) patents in the U.SA. covering both seawater, and R.O. / desalination waste, both used as a base fluid for drilling and fracturing oil and gas wells. Our seawater patents have been granted in South Africa, The European Union, China, The Ukraine, and The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Ongoing extensions of granted patents are ongoing in various “E.U.” countries; and we are finalizing applications in The United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Australia, and India. We have covered many of the major shale oil and gas development countries that have serious fresh water shortages. Background Many horizontal wells completed with multiple stages of hydraulic fracturing (i.e. - plug and perf completions) require up to 20 million gallons of water per well. In oil rich areas, hundreds of millions of gallons of freshwater are pulled from local aquifers each year to support fracturing and related operations. The O&G industry’s thirst for water is projected to skyrocket in the coming decades as the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that 80% of all natural gas produced annually will be from fracking operations. Local water sources cannot support this thirst. Due to the impacts on local water tables, regulators and governments on the national, state and local levels have begun restricting or, in some cases, outright banning utilization of local water for O&G operations. In some regions, prices for using water for O&G operations have doubled or tripled. Reduction of supply and increased costs are likely to continue, threatening the growth of hydraulic fracturing and the exploitation of new oil fields. Patented Solution Seawater Technologies LLC has developed and patents multiple techniques for eliminating the need to use any local water (fresh or produced) in an O&G well. ST has invented systems and methods for collecting seawater from oceans, gulfs, sea, saltwater lakes, desalination plant waste waters, R.O. plant waste waters, and the like and transporting that water to an inland oilfield for creating and/or use in production wells. Seawater Technologies LLC’s technology covers both general transport and utilization of seawater at inland oil fields for fracturing and drilling, and specific methods of transportation including by rail, truck, and pipeline. Seawater Technologies LLC’s technology will enable its owners to control what is likely to be the dominant base fluid for inland oilfield operations for decades to come and shore up its position as a dominating force in the hydraulic fracturing arena. In addition, Seawater Technologies LLC holds a U.S.A. patent covering the use of waste waters from desalination and R.O. (reverse osmosis) plants, as base fluids for drilling and fracturing O&G wells. Once hated because these waste waters had to be pumped into disposal wells, these waste waters now become an alternate frac water supply. Who would have ever dreamed that there were going to be more than 40 brackish “R.O.” plants in Texas? Seawater Technologies LLC did, and we patented the use of those waters for drilling and fracturing long before anybody cared about them; but what is interesting, is R.O. waste water from a brackish water R.O. plant is only about 1/3 of the salinity of seawater. Mixed with fresh water, or used at full strength, R.O. waste waters make a good frac fluid. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/39/5f/f1/4ade831aea17a5/US9862871.pdf Technical, Environmental, Regulatory and Financial Outlook Seawater has long been used for offshore wells as a base fluid for drilling and well stimulation (acid and frac). The chemistry of such wells is easily applicable to wells using ST’s technologies. ST has commissioned an independent analysis of the environmental and other regulatory issues facing its technologies which concluded that no obstacles exist to widespread adoption of the patented technologies. |
PORTFOLIO DETAILS
U.S. Patent Nos. 8,733,442, issued 5/27/14 8,807,221, issued 8/19/14 8,833,456, allowed 9/16/14 Owner: Seawater Technologies, LLC Priority Date: May 10, 2013 U.S. Issued Claims: 58 Total (10 Independent) Portfolio Coverage: Disclosed are systems and methods for transporting seawater from a seawater source (e.g., an ocean) to an inland oilfield for utilization in drilling and/or hydraulic fracturing operations. Issued/allowed claims cover a variety of actors, including end users, well operators, O&G well suppliers, water transport companies, pipeline owners, etc. Affected Industries:
Additional Information: Upon executing a Non-Disclosure Agreement, additional information about the patents, the market players, analysis of regulatory issues, and financial models are available. |