Natural
gas is
an abundant energy source and the cleanest-burning fossil
fuel. It is extracted
from dense shale rock formations, and has become the
fastest-growing fuel that
could become a significant new global energy source. In
addition, shale gas
contains significant amounts of light hydrocarbons (e.g.
ethane, propane,
butane) providing lower cost raw materials to chemical
industry. The long-term
planning and development of the shale gas supply chain network
around each play
is a very relevant problem, that to the best of our knowledge,
has not been
addressed before through the use of advanced and comprehensive
optimization
models and tools. An additional critical aspect in
shale gas production
is water management. Shale gas production is a highly
water-intensive process,
with a typical well requiring between 3-5 million gallons of
water to drill and
fracture. The vast majority of this water is used during the
fracturing
process, with large volumes of water pumped into the well with
sand and
chemicals to facilitate the extraction of the gas. Typically
only 15-30% of
this water returns as flowback water. Therefore, a long-term
planning model for
the development of shale gas fields should account for water
availability.
Furthermore, given the short periods of time in which very
large amounts of
water are used in the fracking of shale gas (e.g. 3 months),
the scheduling of
the fracturing of the wells and coordination of the logistics
for transporting
the water is a very important problem. This presentation
provides an overview of
recent optimization models for shale gas production.
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