Seawater Fracturing Fluid Development Challenges: A Comparison Between Seawater-Based and Freshwater-Based Fracturing Fluids Using Two Types of Guar Gum Polymers

Abstract During the past several years (i.e., 2006 to 2014), the US transformed the development of shale oil and gas from slow and steady into a shale gas boom by combining two already existing technologies—multistage hydraulic fracturing and horizontal wells. This helped the US once again be energy-independent regarding natural gas supply (Charlez 2015). Inspired by such success, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region are meeting the increasing energy demand by following similar steps (Bartko et al. 2012). Large stage sizes in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling long laterals require large quantities of freshwater. Despite the fact that the Arabian Peninsula lacks freshwater resources, fresh water is still consumed by the oil and gas industry in the region. Conversely, seawater is plentiful and should substitute for freshwater in unconventional resource operations. However, the high salinity of seawater raises many chemical challenges in developing design criteria for fracturing fluids. To help mediate this problem, this paper studies the chemistry of developing seawater-based fracturing fluids using two types of polymers as gelling agents and compares results to already existing freshwater-based fracturing fluid data under different conditions. Various seawaters from around the world were compared to Arabian Gulf seawater and its various compositions throughout the year. The local seawater's high total dissolved solids (TDS) measurement is 54 000 mg/L and includes sulfate (>4000 mg/L), calcium (>600 mg/L), and magnesium (>1700 mg/L). These are the major ions that cause delayed hydration, alteration of the crosslinking mechanism, and high scale formation, along with barite (BaSO4). Moreover, the paper presents a better understanding of fluid behavior by studying the effects of sulfate (>4000 mg/L), calcium (>600 mg/L), and magnesium (>1700 mg/L) individually to observe fluid stability at high temperatures in both polymers.