December 2024
On this page, the following performance data are provided:
Hydraulic fracturing is a well completion technique used to create cracks in the rocks around a well to increase the flow of oil and natural gas. It involves pumping fluid into a wellbore to create enough pressure to fracture the surrounding hydrocarbon-bearing rock layer.
The fracturing operation takes place at the start of the wellbore's life cycle. The injected fluid is often water, and it usually contains various chemical additives and a proppant, such as sand, to keep the fractures open so oil and gas can flow to the well. For more information on hydraulic fracturing fluids, see FracFocus.ca.
What is make-up water for a hydraulic fracturing project?
Make-up water is high-quality nonsaline, alternative nonsaline, or other alternative water injected into the wellbore to fracture the reservoir. Because hydraulic fracturing operations do not use water after a well is fractured, opportunities to recycle fracturing fluid (flowback water) within the well are limited, so make-up water accounts for most of the water used. However, flowback water can be reused to fracture a different well, thus reducing the nonsaline water used in another hydraulic fracturing operation.
What is the common source of water?
The most common source of water for hydraulic fracturing operations is nonsaline water. Our licensing process for allocating nonsaline water under the Water Act ensures minimal environmental effects, and the strain on nonsaline water resources is low.
The geological formations a company targets can influence its overall nonsaline water use intensity, as various geological attributes can affect how easily a formation can be fractured. We report nonsaline water use by geological formation or group. We can draw more meaningful conclusions about water use and industry best practices by looking at companies producing from the same formation.
Can alternative make-up water be used for hydraulic fracturing?
We encourage companies to conserve nonsaline water when developing water management plans for hydraulic fracturing operations. However, sourcing large volumes of other alternative water for hydraulic fracturing can be challenging.
Produced water, a by-product of hydrocarbon production, can be used as a source of other alternative water. However, the availability of produced water depends on oil and gas activity in the area and the geologic formations being produced. Formations are considered either "wet" or "dry." Wells producing in a "wet" formation can typically supply sufficient volumes of produced water for hydraulic fracturing, whereas wells in a "dry" formation typically cannot. Produced water must often be collected and stored to build a sufficient quantity to contribute to a hydraulic fracturing operation.
Flowback water can be reused in subsequent fracturing operations (i.e., as a source of other alternative make-up water), but its reuse depends on transportation and storage logistics. The receiving operation must be nearby and able to accept the flowback water promptly.
Limitations on viable sources of other alternative water (e.g., produced or flowback water) or suitable infrastructure (e.g., water storage facilities) have led some companies to use nonsaline water.
In some areas, abundant nonsaline water sources are available to sustain an operator's planned development without posing a risk to the local environment. In such cases, using nonsaline water might be preferable because it removes the risk of moving and storing poorer-quality alternative water on the landscape.
We have stringent requirements for storing and transporting large volumes of other alternative water. We are working to facilitate greater use of other alternative water and, in turn, less nonsaline water while ensuring the environment remains protected. Recent updates to our waste storage, handling and disposal requirements (i.e., Directives 055 and 058) make it easier for companies to stockpile other alternative water for hydraulic fracturing. Additionally, regulatory requirements were released in 2023 (Directive 077) to enable the movement of other alternative water through temporary surface pipelines for water conveyance, further reducing barriers to its use. We expect these regulatory changes to lower nonsaline water use intensity.
How do we measure performance?
Water use efficiency in hydraulic fracturing depends on several factors, including the project stage. While other technologies use water throughout the operations stage, hydraulically fractured wells typically use water only once during the completion phase after drilling the well (part of the “construct” stage). Hydraulically fractured wells are expected to produce hydrocarbons for years after well construction is complete without needing additional water during the operations stage. This means the water use intensity of a hydraulic fracturing operation decreases over time.
The metric for comparing annual nonsaline water use performance is water use intensity (calculated as the volume of nonsaline water used in barrels divided by the barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) produced in the first 12 months following the fracture). When looking at nonsaline water use intensity over time, the intensity is calculated based on production volumes during the calendar year.
The average nonsaline water use intensity for a hydraulically fractured well is 0.45 bbl/BOE in its first year of production — decreasing to 0.07 bbl/BOE after ten years of production. The intensity will continue to decrease because most wells produce hydrocarbons until they reach their economic limit without requiring more water.
Hydraulic Fracturing Water Use – Sector Summary
Hydraulic fracturing operators used about 20% of their nonsaline water allocation in 2023 (see the following figure).
The following map shows where hydraulic fracturing operators are using nonsaline water as a source of make-up water in Alberta. Zoom in to reveal more.
Total Water Use
Almost 2% of the total water used in 2023 for hydraulic fracturing was recycled water; the remainder (98%) was make-up water (see the following figure).The total annual production from all wells fractured since 2013 continues to increase and was almost 611 million BOE in 2023.
From 2013 to 2023, hydrocarbon production from hydraulically fractured wells increased by 593%, while the annual total water use increased by 288%.
Operators fractured more wells in 2013 than in 2018. The increased water use in this timeframe may be attributed to operators targeting different formations (e.g., Montney and Duvernay). Over the past eleven years, operators have increased horizontal well lengths and the number of fracture stages per well in the Montney and Duvernay Formations. Wells with longer horizontal legs and more fracture stages use more water. However, longer wells with more fracture stages require fewer wells, reducing the overall surface disturbance to produce the same hydrocarbon volume.
Before 2017, operators primarily targeted formations that required less water per well (i.e., Cardium). On average, a well in the Duvernay Formation uses ten times more water than one in the Cardium Formation, and wells in the Montney Formation use four times as much water. Total water use correlates to the number of wells fractured in the Montney and Duvernay.
Make-Up Water
In 2023, about 27 million m3 of make-up water was used for hydraulic fracturing. Nonsaline water accounted for 97% of the make-up water (see figure below). Although alternative water sources only made up about 3% of the total, the volume of alternative water amounted to almost 0.8 million m3 — a substantial volume that could have otherwise been nonsaline water. While other alternative make-up water volumes remain relatively small, their use increased by 737% between 2013 and 2023, demonstrating that operators are looking at alternative water sources to meet their needs.
Nonsaline Water Use Intensity
In 2023, hydraulic fracturing companies used about 20% (26.5 million m3) of the nonsaline water allocated to the energy industry, producing over 611 million BOE.
Nonsaline water use intensity refers to the amount of nonsaline water in barrels used to produce one BOE. As mentioned earlier, hydraulic fracturing operations usually require water only during well completion (part of the “construct“ stage), whereas other extraction technologies also require it during the “operations” stage. To enable comparisons with these other technologies (which are based on a calendar year of hydrocarbon production), we calculate the nonsaline water use intensity for hydraulic fracturing based on the first 12 months of available production data following the fracture rather than production volumes during the calendar year. This method shows that operators used 0.67arrels of nonsaline water to produce one BOE for wells fractured in 2023 (see the following figure).
From 2013 to 2023, nonsaline water use intensity for hydraulic fracturing increased by 204%. The following factors may have contributed to this increase:
- Varying geological conditions: Water use intensity varies among geologic formations and within each formation. Some formations need more water per well because of the properties of the formation rock.
- Available hydrocarbon resource: Not all geologic formations contain the same volume of hydrocarbons throughout the entire formation, and therefore, some wells have less recoverable hydrocarbons. This situation can result in a higher water use intensity for otherwise identical wells. Operators tend to drill locations with the highest volume of recoverable hydrocarbons first, then move to the next-best location, resulting in higher water use intensity as they deplete the resource on their leases..
- Operating conditions: Companies may operate each well differently depending on the fracture design and geological conditions to maintain pressure, preserve fracture stability, and maximize long-term production volumes. Operators do this by restricting the well’s production in the first few months after completing hydraulic fracturing, resulting in lower initial hydrocarbon production volumes affecting the nonsaline water use intensity (12-month production) calculation
- Fracture design: Operators experiment with different well lengths, number of fracture stages, volume of water per stage, and other variables to identify optimal fracture design for geological conditions. This type of optimization work is ongoing.
Because water use intensity decreases as the well continues to produce hydrocarbons, data over a ten-year period is more reflective of the long-term intensity than the initial 12 months of production. The following figure shows the change in intensity over ten years of production following the fracture. The intensity of an average producing well that was hydraulically fractured decreases by 84% (to 0.07 bbl/BOE) over 10 years of production and continues decreasing the longer it produces.
Hydraulic Fracturing Water Use – Company Performance
Water use data from hydraulically fractured wells include 2023 water use. Production data, however, is pulled from the first 12 months of production after the fracture, not by the calendar year. This approach differs from the nonsaline water use intensity for other extraction technologies that base water use and production volume on the calendar year.
For a well fractured in July 2023, the data pulled on its first year of production extends into July 2024 — 12 months after its fracture date. The cutoff date to include production data in the hydraulic fracturing intensity calculation was the end of July 2024. Therefore, wells fractured after July 2023 or wells that did not have 12 months of production data are not included.
Basing water use intensity on 12 months of production data has its limitations:
- It does not account for long-term production. Wells may produce for decades without using more water; therefore, the true overall nonsaline water use intensity cannot be represented. (However, we did show what intensity looks like for ten years of production in the preceding figure.)
- It does not account for varying strategies that can be used to produce a well, such as restricting early production to extend a well's operational life and increase the estimated total resource recovery. Such a strategy would result in higher intensity in the first 12 months — not because water use is higher than normal but because production has been restricted.
- It does not account for different trends in completions technology.
To make meaningful comparisons, we compare the data of companies with similar experiences and expertise based on their annual hydrocarbon production. In the figures below, companies can be filtered by their total annual production. The default view of the figures is to display all companies, which can be changed using the "Company size" filter.
Use the tool below to find a specific company size by production volume. The “company size” filter can be applied to show a particular company with its peers.
Water Use Intensity by Company
Generally, companies using greater proportions of recycled and alternative make-up water have lower nonsaline water use intensities. However, several variables affect the total volume of water used to fracture a well, including geology, vertical depth, fractured length, and the number of fractured stages. Although these variables may increase water use, they may result in higher production, which means there could be little effect on nonsaline water use intensity.
The following figure shows the hydraulic fracturing nonsaline water use intensity by company for wells fractured in 2023.
Water Use Intensity by Formation
The nonsaline water use intensity by geological formation (or geological group), aggregated by company size (production cohort), is shown below in the left-hand figure. Select a company from the filter, and you will see the nonsaline water use intensity by formation for that company. This will make it possible to compare the company's water use intensity to the average for that company size in various formations. All company-level nonsaline water use intensity by formation or group is shown below in the right-hand figure.
Generally, we expect that nonsaline water use intensity will improve as technology and regulations advance, enabling operators to use more alternative make-up water sources and produce more efficiently from the formations.
Water use, production, and intensity by company size and geological formation or group are provided in the following figure. The left column shows the volumes of nonsaline, recycled, and other alternative water used by each company in 2023. The middle column shows the hydrocarbon production for wells fractured in 2023, and the right column shows the nonsaline water use intensity for wells with 12 months of production. Hover over the nonsaline water use intensity to show the nonsaline water volume used in wells with at least 12 months of production and the 12-month production value used to calculate intensity.
Trend Data
The following figures show eleven-year trend data on water use, make-up water sources, hydrocarbon production, and nonsaline water use intensity.
The "Total Water Use" and "Make-up Water Source" figures show all the water used for fracturing operations in the calendar year. The "Total Yearly Production" figure shows the production from all hydraulically fractured wells within the calendar year. The "Nonsaline Water Use Intensity" figure shows the intensity calculated based on wells fractured before July 2023 with at least 12 months' production data. (Wells with less than 12 months of production were excluded.)
