Accenture: U.S. Shale Gas Operations Teaches Lessons

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

“Water and shale gas development: leveraging the US experience in new shale developments” is a new report from Accenture that identifies water as one of the key challenges that make the development of shale gas different from conventional gas.

“Successful oil and gas operators will be those that understand the local water challenges, leverage the learnings from the U.S. plays and develop the right water sourcing, use/reuse, treatment, disposal and supply chain strategy,” said Melissa Stark, managing director and Clean Energy lead for Accenture’s energy industry group. “One key opportunity for new geographies where infrastructure is a challenge is to explore sharing the development of infrastructure, water treatment facilities and the development of the local supply market.

The report points out that there will be increased focus on reducing the water intensity of production processes, and operators can achieve this by delivering efficiencies in operations, and by maximizing opportunities for end-to-end reuse of wastewater and water treatment. As the report notes, there are opportunities to work with treatment suppliers to gain leverage from new water treatment technologies.