--> Availability Of High TDS Groundwater For Unconventional Oil And Gas Exploration
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Pacific Section AAPG, SPE and SEPM Joint Technical Conference

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Previous HitAvailabilityNext Hit Of High TDS Groundwater For Unconventional Oil And Gas Exploration

Abstract

Exploration and production for oil and gas from unconventional reservoirs in California has received increasing interest in recent years. The Previous HitavailabilityNext Hit of significant Previous HitwaterNext Hit resources for artificial stimulation techniques such as hydraulic fracking will play a key role in the development of potential unconventional reserves. A study of Previous HitwaterNext Hit resources in the southern San Joaquin Valley identified potential Previous HitwaterNext Hit sources for use in unconventional oil and gas exploration in the valley. After defining and quantifying both the surface Previous HitwaterNext Hit and groundwater resources in the valley, the study focused on the groundwater sources as the best potential for use in the expansion of exploration. More specifically, because of the restrictions on surface Previous HitwaterNext Hit and potential land subsidence from additional extraction from below the confining clay layers, the shallow groundwater zone was focused upon. Throughout much of the western portion of the southern valley, the groundwater within the top 200 feet from the surface has been increasing in Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) concentration since the late 1960's. Currently much of this zone ranges from 2000 to almost 100,000 milligrams per Liter (mg/L) TDS. It was calculated that the volume of Previous HitwaterNext Hit in this area currently amounts to as much as 25 million acre feet. Because this zone of Previous HitwaterNext Hit is not only moving upward to within 5 feet or less from the land surface, this Previous HitwaterNext Hit logging of the root zone with high TDS has forced large areas of the Valley to be removed from agricultural production. The initial cost estimate for desalination of this Previous HitwaterNext Hit to a concentration where the Previous HitwaterNext Hit could be useable in unconventional exploration is about $1200 per acre foot. Extracting this non potable supply and in turn lowering the Previous HitwaterNext Hit table has a twofold benefit of supplying Previous HitwaterTop for exploration and possibly making some presently non- farmable land useful again.