Water needs in Dickinson, ND, increase with oil activity

Preliminary projections estimate about a 60 percent increase in oil activity by mid-2010, and supplying water for such activity has become a concern.

“We’re seeing an increase in the need for water on a per-well basis and also we’re anticipating a major increase in drilling activity and fracking activity next year,” said Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.

Helms said state oil officials met with the area’s 12 most active drilling companies to discuss 2010 projections, and based on those discussions, Helms estimates about a 60 percent increase in the coming year.

“They sort of spurt forward and stay constant for a while,” Helms said. “If that comes about, then it will be the second highest ever in North Dakota’s history.”

Only a 1981 oil boom precedes the recent projections in numbers.

While increased oil activity means more revenues, officials are thinking ahead in terms of water needs.

Hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking — is an extraction method that injects a water and chemical mixture into oil-rich rock, such as that in the Bakken formation, and requires an average of 2 million gallons of water per well, the largest of any oil extraction stage, Helms said.

“With the increase in stages for hydraulic fracturing, the average per-well-use has been increasing,” Helms said. “It ranges from 1 to 3.5 (million).”

A well’s drilling phase and long-term use follow behind fracking in amount of water used.

“There is a significantly smaller use, maybe one-tenth of the water, is used in the drilling process,” Helms said.

Certain oil formations and wells require periodic or continuous water during production, however, it’s a small amount, he said.

Some formations require freshwater use.

“There is a lot of concern about using too much ground water,” Helms said. “We’ll have negligible impact on Missouri River flows. It’s a matter of utilizing that so that we don’t over-impact ground water.”

Mary Massad, director of Southwest Water Authority, said some aquifers are being mined to provide water to the oil patch.

“They are using more than what’s coming back in and some are dropping as much as a foot a year, so it’s a huge concern,” Massad said.

Both oil industry and state officials are concerned over North Dakota’s ability to supply adequate amounts of water, said Massad, adding she thinks the need for water is greater than what can be supplied.

More than 95 percent of the water used in North Dakota oil production must be hauled in and out by truck, Helms said.

State water boards and oil officials are slated to meet Thursday in Bismarck to discuss options of supplying larger amounts of water while trying to alleviate excessive road use.

Two strategies are set to be discussed, Helms said, adding a new method could bring more revenue to North Dakota by improving oil well economics.

The first is constructing frac-water depots located at strategic points.

“… if the water authorities and the state can figure out a mechanism for funding these depots up front and then selling the water to the oil companies, then there is a way to get this infrastructure built and have it paid for by the oil industry,” Helms said. “Then, at that point, you have a paid-for infrastructure that the citizens can use.”

Helms said a second strategy, a new concept to avoid excessive trucking, would be to lay irrigation pipe from a water supply point to large holding ponds, which would then distribute the water.

“There are a couple of strategies right now being pursued and there may be things we haven’t thought of,” Helms said. “There is definitely work being done to figure out ways to lower the amount that is trucked.”

Loren Myran of Taylor and a Southwest Water Authority Board of Directors chairperson, said joint efforts of water boards, such as Southwest Pipeline Authority, could increase area revenue.

“If we can get the oil companies to join our project, then we could be serving some more people easier and we’d also be helping them out too with energy,” Myran said. “There is a lot of different ways we’re thinking this might go.”

Water supply concerns may have led North Dakota into new territory.

“It’s something that’s probably newer to us in our region, but the rest of the United States has been dealing with this for a long time,” Massad said.

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