Oilfield Water Weekly

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OilfieldWater.com has been live less than three weeks, and only with a simple landing page. Things are about to change…

Our full website goes live within a week or two, followed by the agenda release for our first executive conference (event happening Downtown Houston this summer). We can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on with you, so please stay tuned for some big updates soon.

In the meantime, thank you for spreading the word about this new platform. We can tell, and we are grateful for your confidence and trust.

Before we get to this week’s news digest, a quick thought from our desk…

As Oilfield Water Flow Evolves, So Too Will News Flow Evolve In This Sector
While gathering the articles for these first couple Oilfield Water Weeklies, we have been contemplating the sector’s newscycle evolution. Just as field operations are rapidly changing, so is the nature of the news flow in the space.

Used to be, we’d be lucky to see 1 business story for every 30 technical stories. In our first 3 newsletters sent to date, the ratio has been more like 1 business story for every 5-10 technical stories. Finance/business interest in the space is only accelerating from here.

Here’s A Bold Prediction: two years from now, oilfield water news flow will share very little resemblance to the news flow today. Business and marketplace developments will increasingly dominate this oilfield niche’s newscycle. 

The coverage upshift is already underway in 2019, with leading O&G financial press outlets like Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Houston Chronicle beginning to write about oilfield water. These outlets are assigning their top-notch O&G reporters like Jennifer Hiller, Sergio Chapa, David Wethe and Kevin Crowley to the water beat.

At Oilfield Water Connection, we believe that four major forces are conspiring to catapult the oilfield water business newscycle into prime-time:

  1. Say You Want An Industrial Revolution? Oilfield water handling stands at the cusp of major disruption. Professionalization. Industrialization. Recycling. Technologification. Manufacturing. Logistical Optimization. Process Change…. Call the change what you want, but change is afoot.. It’s accelerating, and it’s pretty exciting. Few things kick-start business news flow faster than whispers of disruption.
  2. An Existential Threat To The US Oil Production Growth Story. We believe the US E&P industry’s ability (or inability) to deal with produced water has quickly become the biggest risk factor facing the US tight oil business. A second order effect of Permian oil production growth is an exponential increase in wastewater production. Bottlenecks get press (remember the old news desk mantra, ‘if it bleeds it leads’).
  3. Private Equity Interest Is Surging. There are many examples, anecdotes, etc., but our chosen case in point here is Goodnight Midstream. A billion+ dollar private equity backed recapitalization in this space! Think the financial press will notice that? Enough said. Ensuing IPOs in the years to come will presumably create the frequent public company disclosures that drive recurring industry news flow.
  4. A Cottage Industry Is Becoming A Standalone Sector Via M&A. With plenty of buyers and capital circling the oilfield water marketplace, more and more E&Ps are spending more and more braincycles thinking about monetizing their vertically integrated water handling assets. Based on our experience in the O&G industry, it just takes a couple of operators taking the plunge and saying “the water is fine boys, come on in” (pun intended) for a whole herd of E&P’s to adopt a business practice. M&A could explode in this space as the industry transitions, and nothing dominates the O&G newscycle like M&A (every O&G media outlet will cover transactions irregardless of sector).

Having analyzed news flow in the oilfield water management space for some time now, it’s clear to us that the worm has begun to turn.

Together with our early adopters, we at Oilfield Water Connection fully expect to look back on these early newsletters with a sense of nostalgia in the future – for these times they are a changin’…

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And now for this week’s top oilfield water handling stories…


News Digest

A Prime Example Of The Upshift In Oilfield Water News Flow

In our first news story, Hell Or High Water In The Permian Basin, we find a prime example of the news flow shift favoring oilfield water handling. A Greek shipping publisher is now covering the Permian water crisis...

“If Water Was So Important To The Trust…” Trustee Contender Unleashes On Texas Pacific Water Deals In New Video Campaign

Infill Thinking broke the story about a Texas Pacific Land dissident shareholder's videos yesterday. Eric Oliver has a bone to pick with Texas Pacific Land Trust’s oilfield water strategy, and his videos are no-holds-barred...

TPLT Attack Videos Proliferate Online As Shareholder Vote Approaches

With the vote to replace a vacant trustee seat now only a month away, a trustee candidate for Texas Pacific Land Trust has begun an online video campaign that you can watch here...

Microsoft Joins Oilfield Water Opportunity Bonanza

Microsoft is teaming up with SitePro to automate oilfield water management...

Ben Sheppard Weighs In On Permian Constraints

I’m proud that an unprecedented drilling boom is funding roads, schools and other essential services across the state, as well as providing a livelihood to thousands of Texans who either work in the industry or benefit by their proximity to it. But I can’t help but worry about the forces outside our control that might bring these operations to a standstill. A looming infrastructure bottleneck is one potential pitfall...

Midland Sees 26% Population Growth Over Last Decade

Texas oil centers Midland and Odessa were among the fastest growing U.S. metros in 2018, according to newly released Census data for the 12-month period ending July 1, 2018. Both cities benefited from more people moving in than out. Midland had the highest growth of all U.S. metros...

Water: The Largest Challenge to Permian Field Development [Rigzone Coverage Of Wood Mac]

Wood Mac's recent water commentary continues to get picked up by the O&G press. Rigzone is the latest media outlet to cover the consulting firm's opinions...

Managing Produced Water The Rocky Mountain Way… A Chat With Expedition [Aqua Men]

Zach Neal serves as Expedition Water Solutions’ CFO and Chief Commercial Officer. The Infill Thinking team recently connected with Zach to learn more about his company’s operations and trends in the Rockies water market. The insights he shared together with their independent research inform this update...

Webcast Tomorrow: Fundamentals of Produced Water Treatment in the Oil and Gas Industry

WEF's Industrial Wastewater Committee has partnered with the Produced Water Society for this introductory webcast on produced water...

Noble Midstream Partners Shares Bought by Eagle Global Advisors LLC

Eagle Global Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Noble Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:NBLX) by 73.2% during the 1st quarter...

Here's A Technical/Green Piece: Alternative Management Of Produced Water Requires More Research On Hazards

Produced water is the largest waste stream associated with oil and gas exploration and production operations. Most produced water generated on‐shore is managed by permitted injection in deep underground wells but alternative disposal options including reuse are increasingly being considered. However, insufficient understanding...

2019 Pulitzer Prize Goes To An Inaccurate Anti-Fracking Book

The book, entitled Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America, follows several families who sued a natural gas company over alleged health impacts, ranging from polluted water to sick animals...

Chevron Is Getting A Hidden Gem In The Anadarko Deal

Western Midstream operates natural gas, crude oil, and water gathering systems that handle Anadarko's production in the fast-growing region. These assets help reduce operating costs and help ensure market access for the company's output...

Produced Water Spill Reported In Williams County

The North Dakota Department of Health (NDDoH) has been notified of a produced water spill resulting from a mechanical failure at a salt water disposal (SWD) facility in Williams County. The SWD is owned and operated by Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC...

Oil And Gas Climate Review Questioned

The Moneta Divide project has been troubling locals startled by a state permit that would increase the limit of salt in Badwater Creek and allow greater volumes of produced water to enter the 20-mile stream that feeds into the Boysen Reservoir...

Canada's Clean Water Technology Investment

This investment in Saltworks Technologies Inc. supports the AirBreather, an innovation that addresses a critical problem in the oil and gas industry: how to dispose of wastewater in a cost-effective and environmentally safe way...

NMSU's New Method For Wastewater Treatment, Reuse

A group of three postdoctoral researchers, four Ph.D. candidates and three master’s students are also looking at ways to create clean water from produced water resulting from the oil and gas industry and brackish groundwater...

Scientists Identify Opportunities To Better Understand Oilfield Wastewater

Traditionally, oil companies dispose of wastewater deep underground where it is less likely to cause contamination. But economics and water scarcity are forcing questions about other ways to treat, reuse and even repurpose this wastewater...

Residents Win Extension On Oilfield Pollution Dump Comment Period

Thermopolis residents have won a 79-day extension to comment on a plan to release thousands of tons of oilfield pollutants monthly into the Boysen Reservoir upstream of the source of their drinking water...

Regulators Say An Already-Polluted Wyoming Creek Can Handle More Produced Water. Others Aren't Convinced.

Badwater Creek is classified as a good water source, the second-highest classification in the state. But it’s been far beyond chloride limits for that type of stream for decades. The permit to discharge produced water from oil and gas development into Badwater predates the Clean Water Act of 1972. No one really knows what the water quality was like before.

4,000-Well O&G Project In Central Wyoming Moves Past Water Concerns

An oil and gas firm’s controversial plan to expand its operations by more than 4,000 wells in central Wyoming advanced \with the release of a draft federal environmental review.

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