May 25, 2016

The National Academies’ Unconventional Hydrocarbon Roundtable held a two-day workshop on “Use of Flowback and Produced Waters: Opportunities and Challenges for Innovation” on May 25-26, 2016. The workshop featured panelists and attendees from the oil and gas industry, federal and state agencies, federal and academic research laboratories, environmental organizations, scientific organizations, and a range of other interested parties.

By bringing together experts on different aspects of the issue to share solutions and ideas, the workshop aimed to answer three major questions: (1) What do we know with confidence regarding technologies and chemical characterization of flowback and produced waters for beneficial uses? (2) What do we need to know? (3) How might we fill those gaps?

Common themes throughout the workshop included the technological developments and challenges in water treatment; infrastructural and economic constraints on the use of produced and flowback waters; existing uses in the oil and gas industry; emerging uses and the need for detailed field studies; the need for locally or regionally specific approaches; environmental and regulatory issues; and desires for public engagement, transparency, and data sharing.

A report on the outcomes of the workshop and video recordings of all of the sessions will be made available on the Unconventional Hydrocarbon Roundtable’s website.

Source: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine