Challenges Associated with Shale Gas Development in Asia

The rapid development of shale gas throughout US shale gas plays such as the Barnett, Marcellus, Fayetteville and Haynesville has led to water management concerns. There is a very limited potential for underground injection of fluids, as underground injection is considered to be consumptively lost from the hydrological cycle. Multiple withdrawals of water could decrease the ground water considerably. Waste water treatment by means of management of flow back water in sewage treatment plants also does not cater to the need of desalination and chlorination issues. In case of shale gas exploration where around 6 million gallons of fresh water is used per well, India might face severe water challenges. Shale’s have been explored as source rocks in 8 basins in India. In cases like Jaisalmer Basin, Rajasthan, it would nearly become impossible to meet such water demands. There is thus a need to recycle the water used and this paper would look into the matter that how flow back water could be managed giving niche solutions for India having extremely high temperature conditions compared to the US. Membrane based solutions which would significantly reduce the water footprint would be taken into consideration.