Fracking goes to brackish water and water-less process

The Texas Tribune has a couple of stories on the use of alternatives to freshwater fracking by drillers.  The first discusses the use of brackish water which is still pretty plentiful in West Texas.  It lies in aquifers that require drilling and pumping it to the surface tanks.  The other process uses propane to break the tight oil formations.

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Academics see a number of challenges associated with propane fracking, which few if any companies are experimenting with in Texas, apart from GasFrac. First, according to Yoxtheimer, “you’ve got to truck in a lot of propane,” which can be expensive. He also said the propane “works less effectively in deeper formations where you need to build up more pressure.” 

Tudor disagrees that these issues pose problems. He pointed out that the virtually all the propane — which is a byproduct of natural gas processing and oil refining — gets reused. Supplies of propane come from Corpus Christi, he said, and the fuel is "easily available" in South Texas. "We won't cause any shortages," he said. 

That is an implicit contrast with the considerable water needs of conventional fracking, which already accounts for a double-digit percentage of water use in some rural Texas counties. The water leftover from fracking operations typically does not get reused. Instead, it gets discarded into a disposal well. (The Texas Railroad Commission on Tuesday approved rules to make it easier for companies to recycle water.) 

Tudor also said that his company had fracked at depths well over 10,000 feet. 

An advantage of propane fracks, said Yoxtheimer, is that they avoid the damage to the oil and gas-producing formation that water can cause.

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Being able to reuse the propane should be a real advantage.  The main downside will be the fear factor promoted by the anti energy left.  They have only recently been beaten back on their attempt to making regular fracking fluids look scary.