DENVER, CO, Aug. 19, 2015 --Today, Antero Resources Corporation, an independent exploration and production company, announced that it has signed an agreement with Veolia Water Technologies and Veolia North America, a specialist in optimized resource management, to design and build a state-of-the-art advanced wastewater treatment complex in Doddridge County, W.Va.
The complex includes an initially designed 60,000-barrel-per-day facility that will allow Antero to treat and reuse flowback and produced water rather than permanently dispose of the water in injection wells. The company will own the treatment assets including any ancillary facilities. The complex will be centrally located in Antero's footprint in the southwestern core of the Marcellus Shale play with the ability to serve its development in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays.
The Antero advanced wastewater treatment facility will incorporate Veolia's proprietary AnoxKaldnes™ MBBR biological treatment and its CoLD Process®, an evaporation and crystallization technology, to treat a full range of water qualities including Antero's completion flowback and produced water. This same technology has been successfully utilized in dozens of facilities around the world.
The facility will produce fresh water that meets stringent quality specifications, resulting in the treated water being delivered back into Antero's existing freshwater distribution system and reused for ongoing completions and development. In addition to reusable fresh water, the plant is expected to produce marketable byproducts with commercial value including salt and other brine products currently used by oil and gas operators for drilling and completion activities.
Veolia has agreed to build the complex under a turnkey contract and will operate it under a 10-year agreement. The contract contains performance guarantees including uptime availability, which considerably de-risks the project economics and reliability. The treatment facility is expected to be in service by the end of 2017, pending finalization of project logistics including regulatory permitting and construction.
Accordingly, capital investment for the advanced wastewater treatment complex is estimated to be $275 million, which includes site preparation and construction, byproducts processing equipment and five miles of water pipeline that will connect the Antero treatment facility to its existing freshwater distribution system.
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