Thoughtful, firsthand reporting is getting harder to come by these days. In an era of declining print advertising revenue, publishers routinely flood the web with low-calorie click bait (because it creates ad inventory) instead of publishing deeply reported, “old school” journalism.
Every once in a while you’ll come across a modern journalist bucking the trend. We appreciate it when reporters get out from behind their desks to see their subject matter in the real world. That’s why we’ve invited Carlsbad Current Argus reporter Adrian Hedden to attend our next conference with a press pass (the event is only six weeks out by the way, and you can register here if you haven’t yet).
Adrian and a photographer invested the past week traveling across the Lower 48 to report on oilfield water management practices in the Bakken, Marcellus, Eagle Ford, and Permian.
Hailing from New Mexico, Adrian works the Permian oilfield beat so he understands our industry and frequently reports on it. While his team’s reporting mission on this “Waste2Water Tour” was socially motivated not market motivated, we appreciate that a) water is inextricably linked to life in the communities surrounding oilfields, and b) Adrian visited oilfield facilities across the country and is reporting on the recycling efforts which are top of mind for everyone in industry.
We believe forward-thinking industry leaders will find motivation and inspiration in this kind of reporting. Improving how we deal with water as an industry is a business opportunity as vast as the West Texas sky. It’s an opportunity that many good folks who attend our events and read this newsletter are working on right now.
Some of the early reports from Adrian’s tour appear in our top stories below, and we look forward to reading more of his trip takeaways as he returns to the office today and amalgamates his findings.
And now for this week’s top oilfield water industry headlines…
News Digest
Waste2Water "Travelogue" - Reports From The Field About Oilfield Water Management
Two journalists from New Mexico recently spent about a week on the road documenting oilfield water management practices in four key Lower 48 unconventional basins...
Waste2Water: Adrian Hedden's Twitter Feed
Adrian has been keeping folks posted on his oilfield water waypoints here...
Waste2Water: 6 Things We Know About The Oilfield's Water Problem
Point 6 caught our eye: "Ryan Flynn, executive director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said the industry has an opportunity growing in step with the boom: To create an economy for use of treated and recycled water in agriculture and other industries..."
XRI Announces New Delaware Basin Water Infrastructure Supersystem
XRI, a leading water midstream company with owned infrastructure throughout the Permian Basin, announced yesterday the completion of its Northern Delaware Basin Supersystem with water pipeline infrastructure spanning more than 125 miles throughout the core areas of development activity in New Mexico’s Lea and Eddy Counties...
US Oil Firms Challenge Pipeline Surcharge For Steel Tariff
Two shale producers have challenged an energy pipeline operator’s proposed surcharge for the Trump administration’s 25% tariff on imported steel, raising the stakes for pipeline builders facing higher construction costs...
Delaware Basin New Injection Well Demand Is On A Record Setting Pace In 2019 [Charts Of The Day]
The need to put away massive quantities of produced water in the Delaware Basin has sparked a pore space rush the likes of which the Permian has never before seen...
Blockchain In Oilfield Water Management
Antelope Water Management, a US-based company providing sustainable water solutions for extracting oil and gas, has announced the adoption of GumboNet, the blockchain network of Data Gumbo Corporation...
Water Woes: Oilfield Water Marketplace, Blockchain, & Boom Commentary
In a recent write-up on oilfield water, PanXchange says: "Over the past few months, we received interest regarding the trading and price assessment of oilfield water as a commodity..."
Water: The Hot Commodity In The Permian And Elsewhere
Groundwater is privately owned by the owner of the surface estate. As with oil and gas, it is subject to the rule of capture. Landowners’ requests that the rule be modified in favor of the “rule of reasonable use” have been rejected by the Texas Supreme Court....
In Only 6 Weeks...
The oilfield water business is changing fast. The deal pipeline is full and every deal is different. In 6 weeks, don't miss a chance to gather with the industry leaders driving the change....
90 Days Later… NGL Is Digesting Mesquite
In Fort Worth this week, the Infill Thinking team had a chance to talk in person with one of the founding members of Mesquite. That conversation prompted them to listen back to a replay of NGL management’s quarterly earnings call from about a week ago...
Conventional Oil Impacts Groundwater More Than Fracing
While many protests against the oil and gas industry focus on the effects of fracing on the environment, scientists say that as far as groundwater is concerned, conventional oil and gas exploration and production could affect underground water supply much more than hydraulic fracturing could...
Earthquake Cluster Slams Kansas County With 11 Quakes In 5 Days
A county in central Kansas experienced a pretty shocking uptick in seismic activity last week — 11 earthquakes in five days...
After The Frac... Kingfisher County Earthquakes Continue
Western Kingfisher County continues to shake nearly two weeks after an oil and gas operator stopped trying to complete wells at one of its locations...
Minor Earthquakes Reported Across Oklahoma
A handful of minor earthquakes has been recorded across Oklahoma in the past week by the Oklahoma Geological Survey....
Waste To Water: What's The Future For Our Water?
"What we've found so far is promising. A research center in Pennsylvania is exploring the science behind recycling - working to make it practical and fiscally sound. In Texas, wastewater is being recycled enough to reuse in hydraulic fracturing, and research into use of that recycled water in other industries is being conducted. And closer to home, in the Permian and Delaware Basins, producers and operators are working to innovate solutions...."
Texas, Oklahoma Want More Say in Handling Frac Wastewater
Texas and Oklahoma are seeking federal permission to regulate fracing wastewater under their own programs, raising concern among environmentalists who fear that oil and gas companies will eventually be allowed to discharge toxic chemicals into streams and rivers....
Texas Power Prices Tripled To More Than $9,000/MWh When Heat Wave Baked State
Spot power prices in Texas in mid-August almost tripled after electricity demand hit record highs earlier and real-time prices briefly soared to $9,000 per megawatt hour as consumers cranked up air conditioners to escape a brutal heat wave...
UTA Is A Proving Ground For New Fracing Water Treatment Technology
Three newly published studies from a research team led by The University of Texas at Arlington suggest that forward osmosis treatment of fracking wastewater is a viable and feasible remediation process for reuse of that water...
Qwik Pipe Blending Unit Video
Qwik Pipe Blending unit- utilizing fresh water and produced water blending for completion operations in the Permian Basin—
Nuclear Waste Fight Brewing In The Permian Basin
The Wall Street Journal has picked up on the local press and battle around nuclear waste in Andrews Texas, something this newsletter first covered in Issue 14...
US Fossil Energy Secretary To Visit University of Wyoming
He will visit the High Bay Research Facility, the drilling simulator in the new Engineering Education and Research Building, and UW’s Produced Water Management Center...
Still No Known Cause Of Oilfield Wastewater Spills In North Dakota
Two pipeline spills that occurred in the middle of July 2019 are still under investigation by the North Dakota State Health Department. The spills leaked oilfield wastewater into a Missouri River tributary and pastureland...
Produced Water, Oil Spill At Williams County Well Pad Impacts Rangeland
Produced water and oil spilled from a tank at a Williams County well pad this past week, and some of the fluid leaked into rangeland, the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality reported Friday...
Tribal Governments And Environmental Activists Oppose Proposed Wastewater Dumping
Earlier this summer, the Northern Arapaho Tribe came out against a proposal by the energy company Aetheon to discharge oilfield waste upstream of the Wind River. But the opposition was not for the reasons that some tribal members would like....
All Things Water Podcast With Julie Bennett & Duane Devall From Water Standard
In this episode, Justin sits with Julie Bennett & Duane Devall from Water Standard to discuss Monarch Separators, within the O&G industry...
Uber For Oil Hauling
Furthermore, with each barrel of oil produced multiple barrels of salty water are also produced. Depending on the type of well and the basin, this water-to-crude ratio can be as high as 10:1. Often, this water needs to be trucked from the lease to a disposal well or recycling facility...
And Finally... Scientists Now Know How Big Earthquakes Start: With Many Smaller Ones
The overwhelming majority of earthquakes we really feel come quickly after smaller ones, in keeping with new analysis that provides new insights into how seismology works...
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