Another Look at Water and Fracking -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Before reading the data points regarding water and fracking, go back to this link first. This was an early link in which the US Army Corps of Engineers agreed to release enough water from the reservoir to frack up to 10,000 wells per year.

A reader sent me a PDF summary regarding water and fracking that was presented at the 2011 North Dakota Water Convention. The PDF came in as an attachment so I don't have the original link, but it is probably located at the NDIC site.

Here are some high points (some numbers rounded):

• There are 35 fracking crews in North Dakota
• A single fracking crew/rig can frack about 20 wells/year
• 35 x 20 --> 700 wells can be fracked/year in North Dakota at the present time
• The current average water used in fracking is about 6 acre-feet per site
• In 2011, a total of about 4,000 acre-feet of water might be used for fracking in North Dakota

Again, if the US Army Corps of Engineers is willing to release enough water to frack 10,000 wells/year, and at most, the number of wells that can be fracked in North Dakota right now is about 700, one can see why I have repeatedly said water is not an issue in North Dakota (except, of course, distribution: trucks, pipeline, private, public, etc).

The "700" figure looks about right; it looks like the state will see about 2,000 wells drilled this year, and to me, it looks like about 1/3 to 1/2 (maybe more) of these wells will not be fracked during the confidential period.

This post was done in haste; there may be errors in the math (or arithmetic).  The data points are correct, to the best of my knowledge.