A couple dozen big headlines from the past seven days can be found below… but first a quick thought from our desk.
As this newsletter hits your inbox, the Oilfield Water Connection team is hard at work on the program for our first industry gathering. It will be in Houston this summer, and more details are coming soon.
The timing of our inaugural event coincides with a defining moment in the oilfield water management business. This sector currently sits atop a mountain of unanswered questions on business model, operational control, and financing. Some of these include:
- How do operators effectively turn their internal water divisions (cost centers) that control about 2/3rds of O&G water management today into stand-alone businesses (profit centers)?
- How can E&P firms get comfortable relinquishing control over a critical path function, and what do vendor:customer relationships look like post-transaction?
- What will the oilfield water business model look like in 2025?
- Can water midstream companies trade at midstream valuation multiples while properly resourcing the service function necessary in the waterpatch today?
- How will land owner and regulatory issues be navigated?
- Where will financing come from for all the pipe and disposal infrastructure the industry needs?
Our weekly news digest below starts out with another great question raised by the Sourcewater COO. Unfortunately, we do not have all the answers. But fortunately, we do have a mission to serve this industry by gathering its thought leaders to address these questions in a constructive environment unlike any other.
At the start of our journey, we are clear-eyed about oilfield water challenges. Topics on our program will not be selected through rose-colored glasses – for we exist to connect the industry’s problem solvers in a manner that advances this sector a step closer to finding its answers.
So… at upcoming Oilfield Water Connection events… you can expect that candor will be valued, redundant self-promotion will be curbed, and together we will take an honest peek around the corner at what lies ahead.
If you are reading this newsletter, you will very likely be a part of the new water solutions badly needed by the US O&G industry. We hope that you’ll join us in the discussion at our upcoming events… stay tuned for more details very soon.
If this email was forwarded to you, please visit our signup page and subscribe to receive this free digest every Wednesday. If you have suggestions or any interest in sponsoring this newsletter, please reply to this email. Your input is always welcome here.
And now for this week’s top stories (with a few “catch-up” headlines from previous weeks since this is only issue number two)…
News Digest
Permian Basin Water Management Spending Projections [Chart]
Permian basin water management spending is projected to grow from $12.5 billion in 2018 to more than $22 billion by 2023...
Permian Basin Water Disposal Volumes Expected To Double By 2022
Oilfield wastewater disposal volumes are expected to double in the Permian Basin within the next two to three years per new Wood Mackenzie analysis...
Aqua Men-Startups & Stalwarts Will Reshape Oilfield Water
On a typical spring day in 2019, Permian Basin oil wells will produce enough wastewater to fill about 900 Olympic-size swimming pools (13-14mmbpd). By the early-2020s, that figure could approach 1,800 swimming pools filled...
City Of Andrews Holding Special Election To Address Water Supply Concerns
Anytime water makes the headlines in the oilpatch, the O&G industry must be aware. In the city of Andrews (in the heart of the Permian), a new ballot item seeks approval to direct sales tax revenue to new water well fields...
A Permian Trailblazer Is Focused On Pooling Produced Water Assets In 2019 [Aqua Men]
We first met Jim summers, H2O Midstream’s CEO, in Midland back in early-2018. The outsourced oilfield water midstream business model concept wasn’t quite trending yet then, but Jim and his team of produced water trailblazers were already vocal advocates for more widespread application…
Drillinginfo, B3 Insight Complete Permian Basin Water Study
Oilfield data company Drillinginfo and water data company B3 Insight have completed a comprehensive study of water issues in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico...
8 Takeaways From SPE’s Permian Symposium
Here are a few things the Infill Thinking research team jotted down in their notebook during presentations and sideline conversations at the SPE conference in Houston last week... spoiler alert, water plays a leading role…
Texas Pacific Land Trust Files Definitive Proxy Statement to Elect Four-Star General Donald G. Cook as Trustee
All votes must be received prior to the closing of polls at the Special Meeting of the shareholders scheduled for May 22, 2019...
Layne Water Midstream Holdings Racks Up $200mm
Texas-based Layne Water Midstream Holdings, a water midstream business, has secured $200 million in funding. The lead investors were Post Oak Capital LP and Genesis Park LLC.
Solaris Is Closing In On New Deals
Backed by private equity investor Trilantic North America, Solaris has “a couple” letters of intent with oil producers in the works and expects to be handling the wastewater needs for another driller in the future, Greg Mullin, the company’s senior vice president of commercial, said…
Why Chevron Bought Anadarko
Robert Rapier writes: The deal connects several of its existing fields to create a 75-mile-wide corridor in the Permian Basin...
Heartland Water Technology Hires Water Industry Veteran Ricardo Bernal
Heartland's cogeneration solution, called CoVAP, allows landfills to maximize the value of their biogas by using the biogas to make electricity with engines or turbines, and taking the exhaust heat into the Heartland Concentrator as the thermal energy source for evaporating leachate....
New Tech Reduces Produced Water At The Reservoir
A new technology from Hexion aims to help operators significantly reduce their produced water volumes from tight oil and gas wells, without curbing the flow of hydrocarbons…
Water Midstream Sector Positioned To Handle Rising Permian Volumes
Widely regarded oilfield water thought leader Gabriel Collins said: "mass is the thing that really makes your lives complicated in many ways, but it also creates business opportunity,” the SPE reports...
New Process Could Recover Billions Of Gallons Of Oil Refinery Wastewater
Every day in the United States, about 2.5 billion gallons of produced water – a byproduct of oil refinery and extraction – is generated as waste…
Salt Water Disposal: Regulations, Earth Quakes, and Shallow Well Disposals Oh My
As you know, the Texas Rail Road Commission has announced they are going to begin limiting pressure and volume allowances on salt water disposal wells and more restrictions are going to come...
Could A Tug-of-War Between Two Central Texas Counties Leave Residents Without Drinking Water?
Dirk Aaron’s timing was terrible. He took over management of Bell County’s Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District in the summer of 2011, which the National Weather Service regards as the driest year in Texas history.…
What To Watch As The Texas Legislature Takes Up Climate, Energy, Water & More
We’re past the midpoint of the Texas legislative session and the bill filing deadline is behind us. Because the legislature only meets for five months every other year, there’s a lot to accomplish in a short span. Now, as things pick up steam we’ll see which bills move forward and which don’t.
Full Immersion Industry Gets Religion On Produced Water
Endless mountains tower over the arid Permian Basin. Mountains almost a mile high. Mountains of water...
California Fixes A Major Problem With Oilfield Wastewater Injection
A new rule went into effect earlier this month that will help protect California’s groundwater.…
The 'Just Add Water' Initiative Launches
The 'Just Add Water' Initiative plans to bring water to the western arid states to further agriculture, conservation, industry reform, and environmentalism…
“Produced Water? There Isn't Even A Book About It." Well, There Is Now
John Walsh, world renowned expert on upstream water, has published a text book on the principles, fundamentals and equipment needed for the treatment of produced water and flowback water.…
Feds: EPA Fails To Protect Water From Oilfield Contamination
The U.S. Government Accountability Office review also sampled EPA operations around the country before concluding federal regulators were failing to collect paperwork and make on-site inspections necessary to ensure states are enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act when it comes to oilfield operations…
Of Sand & Water. 10 Key Themes In Infill Thinking’s 1Q19 Research Stream
Infill Thinking's research team believes that oilfield water management is now the number one medium term structural challenge for the Permian oilfield. The Infill research team's oilfield water coverage ramped up during the quarter...
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