NGInnovations Installs Water-Cleaning Unit at Marcellus Site


The State Journal
11 September 2009

From Staff Reports

NGInnovations Inc. of South Charleston is working to install a portable water-treatment unit at a Marcellus shale gas well development site in West Virginia.

Donald W. Booth, president of NGInnovations Inc., said he could not disclose details about the project. The company's NGPure Recovery Unit, Booth said, is capable of removing surfactants, heavy metals and salts from water that is discharged from natural gas wells, including those drilled in the Marcellus shale. Drillers add surfactants to drilling water to enhance gas recovery.

The Marcellus installation comes on the heels of what Booth called a successful installation of a different unit in Pennsylvania that treats 2,400 barrels of used water a day but at a different standard.

Pennsylvania environmental regulators, the well developer and NGInnovations all tested the treated water after treatment, and the separate results are similar, Booth said.

"It's really performed well," he said of the unit at a CNX Gas Corp. site in Pennsylvania.

The company has worked on developing the technology with the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research & Innovation Center, a research and development organization in South Charleston.

The company, which has 12 to 15 prospects for its units, assembles component parts for its units in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, Booth said. Today, the company employs five people, but Booth hopes that number will increase to as many as 100 employees as use of the technology grows.

Marcellus shale development presents potential for the company's technology, Booth said. Gas companies have started to tap those abundant reserves in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but the drilling process can involve use of large amounts water.

Booth said he believes development of regional gas fields will grow when natural gas prices increase. But he said his company's technology can benefit developers because it can reduce the costs of treating water from wells and also eliminate the need for transporting water for treatment.

NGInnovations said it has learned that most of its customers "do not want to manage their initial flowback and produced waters" or find a new supply of water needed for drilling and fracturing. Instead, the company said it can manage those activities and allow well owners to focus on their core business -- drilling wells and selling gas.

The company said new laws and regulations require owner operators to become more environmentally knowledgeable and proactive in water management.

Booth said NGInnovations recognizes that different well sites can have different conditions, and therefore the company's equipment can be adjusted to treat recovered water from those different sites.