Hassan,

Very few wells have been fractured here to date - one exploration well used 17 megalitres over 14 stages at 3,150 to 4,200 metres depth so it is about the same range. Since posting this question I've been accessing Frac.org and other sites to check water volume variability across sites and states in the US and Canada.

The issue here is that we have very little, basically no surface water, so we are looking at on-site groundwater extraction as the source for fracturing. Water take by the P&G industry is currently unrestricted which contrasts with all other ground water users who require licences - although there are few other users in the areas of current interest, population density is almost the lowest in the country and there are groundwater sources.

Although we have put in place make good requirements for associated water take, mostly by the coal seam gas industry, the consumptive use of water for this industry, they expect 50% recovery, affects the ability to make good.

Our challenge is to put together a picture of likely water use to assist in pre-emptively reducing conflict in relation to groundwater take while still encouraging the industry. Possible actions will be encouraging take from aquifers not targetted by graziers as well as encouraging recycling of associated water from nearby oil tenures.

In addition to the petroleum industry sites you can look into water use regulatory agencies (if you have not already done so). The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) might be a good one. The SRBC regulates water use for the Susquehanna River which drains a large portion of the Appalachian Shale Basin (Marcellus and Utica plays). This region has seen a large increase in UOG development over the past few years.

http://www.srbc.net

http://www.srbc.net/programs/natural_gas_development_faq.htm.

Thanks Kelly - My calculation has a potential take from water sources in the SRBC, including recycled water, of 18,219 Megalitres across 1,928 drill pads, average of 15.7 ML/well.

It may be a decade or two before activity in Queensland gets to this size, although we currently have over 4,100 coal seam gas production wells, out of a planned total of 27,000 by 2030