Restoring Nature's Balance with Fracking Water Recycle - Robert Savarese - www.tigerhillcapital.com
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Quarterly Feature June 2014
Restoring Nature’s Balance
with Fracking Water Recycle
Robert Savarese
www.tigerhillcapital.com
2 | Tiger Hill Capital | Energy & Industrial | www.tigerhillcapital.com
Foreword
Tiger Hill Capital (THC) is an investment In our quarterly feature series, THC’s
management and advisory company partners present perspectives from
that commits its capabilities, network their areas of expertise and insights
and capital to businesses with the from their recent projects. We typically
potential to deliver transformative focus on topics of broad relevance
solutions for global economic and to our clients in which THC is driving
social challenges. innovation.
Our core capabilities of dual-bottom- In this feature Bobby Savarese, THC’s
line investing; business-building; and global leader of Energy and Industrials,
global access to capital, knowledge and zooms in on the economic and
talent are attractive to both our investor envrionmental opportunity in recycling
and enterprise clients. water from hydraulic fracturing in the
Middle East oil & gas fields.
Tiger Hill Capital attracts accomplished
investment and business-building
professionals with a passion for
developing innovative businesses and
projects.
3 | Quarterly Feature June 2014 | info@tigerhillcapital.com
Americas is somewhere between 80 billion of water exceeds the global average by a
Restoring and 140 billion gallons, the GCC will eclipse
this figure as more well sites switch from
factor of ten. In the region there is a high
demand from cities and industry. This high
Nature’s
exploration to production. By 2035 48% of the demand exceeds the water supply from
world’s natural gas will come from fracking natural aquifers to such an extent that it
operations. By 2020 Saudi Arabia will requires 30 desalination facilities, delivering
Balance with consume 12% of its available water capacity
on unconventional oil & gas production.
nearly 400 billion gallons annually, to fill the
gap.
Fracking Water A major challenge is the ability to supply
continuous water to Oil & Gas drill sites. This
In today’s energy business you need several
million gallons of water to frack a typical
Recycle includes hydraulic fractionation operations
where water is indeed essential. Currently
shale gas & oil well. The logic of burning oil
to desalinate water to produce more oil &
major Oil & Gas operators are filling the gap gas is questionable economics. Fortunately,
An oil & gas challenge by managing water needs with a strict supply there is an emerging pathway for reducing
chain management of clean injectable water or eliminating net water consumption in all
In the current energy as the input, then disposing of the well-site fracking operations. The industry
market, GCC members brackish polluted backflow water standard practice of frack back-flow water
are diversifying their return at the output. This type of disposal is becoming less tenable as
operations to more Water ıs 10% of well supply chain is driving up cost to regulatory issues and strong sanctions
unconventional means. production cost the point where water supply is increase. The need for new water treatment
This includes exploration now over 10% of the overall well technologies which are more effective and
and drilling of vast production cost. In the Middle
shale rock formations East it is a well-known fact that
in the Arabian Peninsula. Aged oil wells are water is the most valued and precious
Did you know?
also becoming increasingly attractive to commodity given the scarcity of fresh water
• Middle East oil consumption will
exploit. But one has to wonder, in the vast supply and the greater cost of desalinisation increase 50% by 2040
desert regions, where to expect to find the processes. The problem intensifies for those
• Most Middle East conventional oil
enormous quantities of water required for GCC countries that are more industrialised fields have peaked presuring margins
these drilling process. The annual water and where water has always been in short
• Companies seeking capital efficiency
requirement for fracking operations in the supply. In these countries, the average cost
4 | Tiger Hill Capital | Energy & Industrial | www.tigerhillcapital.com
Operational Hurdles
The average well-head requires 5,000,000 gallons of water. This is
enough water to fill eight Olympic size swimming pools. During the hy-
draulic fracturing process up to 50% of injected frack water flows back
to the well surface and is known as frack water backflow. Frack water
comprises 90% water, 9% sand, 1% chemicals. Furthermore the back-
flow water is extremely hazardous and requires specialist treatment at
facilities often at great distances from well-sites. The current process
employed by drill-site operators in the GCC region is to “truck” all of the
required water to each site from water desalination plants where it is
deposited into a large open air pond ready to be injected. Adjacent to
the fresh water pond is a back-flow water pond where the hazardous
back-flow water and chemical mix is stored. This “dirty” water is then
sent by truck to a water treatment facility often hundreds of kilometres
away where not only is the water cleaned but the truck also. Clearly this
is a time consuming and uneconomical method for ensuring the water
is treated as well as maintaining well up-time.
5 | Quarterly Feature June 2014 | info@tigerhillcapital.com
The Solution
The key objectives of a well-site operator is as solar or wind in mind. The technology is truck re-haul to treatment facilities by 50%.
to recycle polluted refuse water and regen- modular and deployable via standard 40ft From a maintenance perspective, the tech-
erate in into reusable, re-injectable frack shipping containers ensuring deployment nology is monitored at all times from the
water in compliance with local regulatory around the GCC relatively simple as the Swiss base where any irregularities can be
environment requirements and significantly logistics platform is already in place. Our rectified remotely.
reducing well-head operational costs. technology is scalable to treat the average
1000m3 of back-flow water per day and Water is truly the new frontier and we are
THC has partnered exclusively with a Swiss can go far beyond this amount should the evermore involved in offering solutions
water purification technology that is able well-site require it. The logistics cost to on production and conservation of vital
to solve the current operational issue that deliver fresh water to the site and subse- resources. The business objectives of the
well-site operators are facing in the GCC. quently dispose of refuse water to a treat- major oil companies are to increase produc-
Firstly this is an O&M field service solution ment facility is well over $5/gallon. Our tion throughput without compromising on
which requires only 3 ingredients to turn system eliminates the need for a complex cost, operation efficiency, safety and en-
back-flow water into re-injectable water: water supply chain by recycling frack water vironment. Our technology can transform
salt, iron and energy. The technology is at the drill site in a closed-loop system thus the field of back-flow water management
driven via a traditional generator which can reducing fresh water transportation costs by offering a unique service solution to a
be powered by a renewable source such and ratcheting down the cost of tanker process with no current tenable solution.
6 | Tiger Hill Capital | Energy & Industrial | www.tigerhillcapital.com
About the Author
Robert Savarese
Partner, Energy & Industrials
Robert “Bobby” Savarese brings to the THC holding group. While serving there, he developed a
team more than 25 years of project development new business model that helped set the vision and
experience in Energy, Oil & Gas, and Downstream strategy for repeatable multi-year business growth
Chemical Industries. As a partner, Bobby will add in the region.
value by leading energy and industrial division
globally. Over the course of his career he has lived Mr Savarese has executive management experience
and worked in the US, Middle East, Asia, South with international engineering firms (CDI, Wood
America, and Europe accumulating an array of Group, ABB and DuPont) where he directed high
industry experience and client contacts. Bobby value capital projects in the US, Europe, China
has a strong Middle East background having held and South America. He has also been involved in
the position of Executive Vice President of Global developing a new process turnover and start-up
Business Development for a leading Middle East delivery tool - RTO (Readiness to Operate).
7 | Quarterly Feature June 2014 | info@tigerhillcapital.comLondon HQ Dubai Office Enquiries 52 Brook Street Business Centre Logistics City info@tigerhillcapital.com London Dubai Aviation City www.tigerhillcapital.com W1K 5DS P.O. Box 390667 ©Tiger Hill Capital, Ltd. 2014 United Kingdom Dubai, UAE
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