Water usage for natural gas production through hydraulic fracturing in the United States from 2008 to 2014

Hydraulic fracturing has promoted the exploitation of shale oil and natural gas in the United States (U.S.). However, the large amounts of water used in hydraulic fracturing may constrain oil and natural gas production in the shale plays. This study surveyed the amounts of freshwater and recycled produced water used to fracture wells from 2008 to 2014 in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Results showed that the annual average water volumes used per well in most of these states ranged between 1000 m3 and 30,000 m3. The highest total amount of water was consumed in Texas with 457.42 Mm3 of water used to fracture 40,521 wells, followed by Pennsylvania with 108.67 Mm3 of water used to treat 5127 wells. Water usages ranged from 96.85 Mm3 to 166.10 Mm3 annually in Texas from 2012 to 2014 with more than 10,000 wells fractured during that time. The percentage of water used for hydraulic fracturing in each state was relatively low compared to water usages for other industries. From 2009 to 2014, 6.55% (median) of the water volume used in hydraulic fracturing contained recycled produced water or recycled hydraulic fracturing wastewater. 10.84% (median) of wells produced by hydraulic fracturing were treated with recycled produced water. The percentage of wells where recycled wastewater was used was lower, except in Ohio and Arkansas, where more than half of the wells were fractured using recycled produced water. The median recycled wastewater volume in produced wells was 7127 m3 per well, more than half the median value in annual water used per well 11,259 m3. This indicates that, for wells recycling wastewater, more than half of their water use consisted of recycled wastewater.