If you are opening this email in the Permian Basin, we hope you are staying warm and your water is fluid, not frozen.
The “feels like” temp in some corners of far West Texas and New Mexico this morning was in the single digits. Snow has been falling heavy throughout the Permian, especially in the Delaware Basin, and the snow plows are hard at work clearing I-20 around Pecos this morning. Temps will be in the teens and below freezing for much of the day in the Basin.
On the produced water front, there are likely to be some issues arise around trucking to disposal due to trucks stalling and frozen roads. Case in point – Odessa Police have responded to approximately 35 weather-related calls since late last night, mainly crashes and assist motorist calls (a sign of how bad the roads are and some key intersections are closed). Most brine won’t freeze in this Permian cold snap, but freshwater will. So freshwater crews have drained non-operational equipment and are doing their best to keep fluid moving through operational equipment.
For E&P activity, snow and frozen roads could cool things off a bit (pardon the pun). Permian E&P has been heating up and stronger than some expected in the seasonal first quarter bounce-back this year. Permian rig count is up 14 rigs (+4%) from December lows, and our Permian industry contacts tell us the completions supply chain has been struggling to keep up with demand. This week could bring a slowdown, primarily from logistics issues as trucks struggle to navigate frozen roads.
At this point in the year, most 2020 budgets are either approved, being approved, or being finalized. And they are kicking in!
Here at Oilfield Water Connection, we are seeing the effect of budget resets too – there’s been a flurry of new sponsor signups and registrations for our May 2020 Oilfield Water Markets Conference over the past week.
In just the past couple of days, four great new sponsors have signed on to appear at this event: a Gold, a Silver+App, a Silver, and a Bronze sponsor have all just joined the event. All confirmed sponsors are recognized on the event website, and we will be recognizing each new signup individually in upcoming newsletters, starting today with Winston & Strawn’s Gold sponsorship.
Winston & Strawn has a strong reputation in energy – a reputation that just got a fresh boost from the hiring of two Houston-based global capital markets partners who are very well known in the oilfield water world. We are proud to welcome their experts to our May 2020 event and applaud the firm’s support of the largest event ever to focus entirely on the key oilfield water marketplace issues facing business people in this industry. The networking and learning opportunities this event offers keep getting better and better with more smart guys like these planning to be in the room.
And now, here are the top oilfield water industry headlines of the week…
News Digest
Winter Storm In Effect In The Permian Basin
Crews have been out all night treating areas in the 12 county Odessa District. Many sections have plowed overpasses and a few have plowed roads. Heavy snow fall and extremely cold temps are likely to affect oilfield activity this week in the world's busiest basin...
Wastewater, Wastewater Everywhere
In the Permian Basin, now the most prolific oil field in the world, hundreds of miles of plastic pipelines snake along dirt roads, drilling pads and the edges of farm fields. But they are not carrying oil. Instead, they’re transporting an equally precious commodity in this arid region straddling the New Mexico-Texas border: water...
Grandparent Wells? Life After 5: How Tight-Oil Wells Grow Old
It's time to talk about the grandparents. Terminal decline rates in tight-oil wells require 7-9 years to fall below a 10% threshold. Some variance is seen across the three major oil-rich basins, but not a whole lot. The result: 70% of US shale production last year came from wells completed either in 2019 or 2018...
Permian Output Growth Stutters
Sluggish production increases could trigger new wave of bankruptcies among operating minnows...
BP Earnings Buck Oil Industry Gloom
BP surprised investors with a slight increase in its dividend, bucking the trend in what has otherwise been a bleak earnings season for Big Oil...
Hess Midstream Results Reveal Large Increase In Produced Water Volumes
In the gathering segment, throughput volumes increased 28% for gas gathering, 25% for crude oil gathering and 72% for water gathering compared to the prior-year quarter, driven by growing Hess production...
The New Threat to Energy-Company Bonds: Virus Fears
The economic threat posed by the coronavirus is helping erode demand for energy-company debt just weeks after bond issuance in the sector surged, highlighting the virus’s far-reaching effects on companies and financial markets...
WATER TALENT POOL: Enable Midstream Partners Is Hiring A Director Of Commercial Business Development - Water Infrastructure
This Oklahoma City position is responsible for the continuous development of strategic commercial gathering and processing business development opportunities primarily focused on produced water gathering and disposal systems along with freshwater and reuse of produced water services..
WATER TALENT POOL: Seawolf Looking For Senior Accountant For Midland Office
Seawolf is a leading privately-owned water management company that owns water rights on ~75,000 surface acres in the core of the Delaware Basin. They are hiring for a senior accountant in their Midland office, reporting to the controller...
WATER TALENT POOL: Veolia Is Hiring A Business Developer - Upstream Oil & Gas
This position is based in Pittsburgh and focused on the Oil & Gas Upstream Market in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio (Marcellus & Utica Shale regions)...
WATER TALENT POOL: Rockwater Is Hiring A Buyer
his position works within the Strategic Sourcing group and supports North American procurement operations, the leadership team, and key stakeholders..
WATER TALENT POOL: Permian Jobs Grow As O&G Production Booms In SE New Mexico
The Permian employed about 87,603 workers in 2019, marking an increase of 3,200 new jobs compared with 2018 in 63 New Mexico and Texas counties, per a report from the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO), which studied the last decade of growth in the region...
Records Show Spike In Wastewater Disposal Within Quake Zone
Reno County’s record rainfall in May 2019 swamped open brine pits at Enterprise Operating Products LP, an underground gas and propane storage business located off Blanchard Avenue and Mohawk Road, west of South Hutchinson....
Noble Midstream Takes A Stake In Saddlehorn
Saddlehorn Pipeline Company announced that Black Diamond Gathering, through its majority owner Noble Midstream Partners LP, has purchased a 20% membership interest in Saddlehorn for $155 million effective Feb. 1, 2020....
BCE-Mach III LLC Announces Agreements to Acquire Assets of Alta Mesa Holdings, LP and Kingfisher Midstream, LLC
“This was a unique opportunity to acquire a sizeable cash-flowing asset with the supporting midstream infrastructure, through a bankruptcy process, in an area of our team’s expertise and still have an extensive inventory for future development..."
Rethinking Water: New Technology Promises To Disrupt Oilfield Wastewater Industry
Gradiant Energy Services CEO Danny Jimenez wants to change how the oil and natural gas industry handles the hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater being produced each day...
Frac Investing Primer Focuses On The Water Opportunity
How to Play the Water Crisis - If one of the most controversial issues when it comes to fracking is wastewater — then the companies solving how to deal with it will become infinitely valuable for the future of the U.S. shale boom...
Nuverra Pilots Ondiflo Blockchain Automation of Field Service Delivery in the Marcellus and Utica formations
Nuverra Environmental Solutions (Nuverra) today announced the successful completion of its 2000th field ticket for its operators in the Marcellus and Utica basins leveraging Ondiflo, a blockchain platform for the oil and gas industry...
As Drought Persists, Texas Ranchers Take Stock
In parts of Texas experiencing severe droughts, some ranchers are finding there is practically no grass left for cattle to graze on....
Milestone Environmental Grows
December 2019 was a busy month for Milestone Environmental Services, which opened its newest slurry injection facility in the prolific Permian Basin. The company also inaugurated its first oilfield waste landfill...
MRT Writes About Layne Water Midstream & Texas GLO's Expanding Partnership
“The GLO had been hesitant to do this; disposal wells are such a sensitive issue,” J. Michael Anderson, chief executive officer of Layne Water Midstream, said in a phone interview...
For Range Resources, Water Recycling Key To Operations
The company has, since 2016, even offered to recycle the water from other operators...
Salt Water Trailer Comes Loose, Crashes Into East Texas Building
No injuries were reported Monday afternoon when a trailer reportedly carrying salt water came loose from the truck towing it at the intersection of CR 1211 and Texas Highway 7 West in the Aiken community...
Something New To Watch On The Western E&P Front: Eagle Mountain Energy Partners Announces Partnership with Pearl Energy Investments and NGP
Eagle Mountain Energy Partners, a newly formed upstream oil and gas exploration and production company, announced its partnership with Pearl Energy Investments (“Pearl”) and NGP through NGP Natural Resources XII, L.P., the most recent NGP private equity fund focused on natural resources. Headquartered in Houston, EMEP will pursue acquisition and development opportunities focused primarily in the Williston Basin and other select Rockies basins...
Agencies Green Light North Fork Drilling Plan In The Rockies
The company initially had planned to use nitrogen foam or gel to hydraulically fracture the wells, but then switched to a water-based approach.
Permian Traffic Incidents Remain At High Levels, But 'Death Highway’ Safer In 2019
Route 285, or what West Texas locals call “death highway,” runs from Pecos, Texas to New Mexico. This one highway ended 2019 with approximately 300 reported accidents, a 32% decline from 2018...
Marcellus Tanker Truck Rolls & Spills 3,500 Gallons Of Produced Water
A tanker truck owned by Beimel Transportation, of Kersey, carrying produced water — fluid returned to the surface through the natural gas drilling process — rolled over in Delmar Township early Sunday morning, breaching the cargo tank and causing 3,465 gallons of produced water to spill out into a marsh area...
Bakken Wastewater Pipeline Spill Worse Than Feared
A pipeline spill of oilfield wastewater in northwestern North Dakota has affected more cropland than originally reported. State environmental scientist Bill Suess said regulators were notified earlier this month of the 8,400 gallon (31,797 liter) pipeline leak in Renville County. The pipeline is operated by Texas-based Cobra Oil and Gas...
$1 Million Penalty Assessed For SWD Blowout
State regulators ordered an oilfield services company to pay a $1 million penalty in a settlement reached over a blowout that happened at a Williams County saltwater disposal well last summer, among other violations...
Water Factors Into MidCon Legislator Briefing
The Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance is calling for legislators to learn more about the use of shallower underground formations to dispose of produced water from oil and gas wells the past several years....
Oil & Politics: Will A Frac Ban Doom Democrats In Pennsylvania?
Are voters more concerned about fracing’s impact on the quality of air and water than they are smitten with the economic benefits of natural-gas extraction?
Mad Money's Jim Cramer: "I'm Done With Fossil Fuels"
“I’m done with fossil fuels. They’re done,” Mad Money's Jim Cramer on Friday after oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported Q4 earnings. “We’re in the death knell phase...”
Jim Cramer Doesn’t Beat The Market & Mad Money's TV Ratings Have Been In A Steady State Of Decline In Recent Years
CNBC personality’s Action Alerts Plus portfolio trails S&P 500, study finds. Meanwhile, ratings for “Mad Money” and subscriptions for Action Alerts Plus, meanwhile, have been on the decline...
Interesting! - How We Transport Water in Our Bodies Inspires New Water Filtration Method
A multidisciplinary group of engineers and scientists has discovered a new method for water filtration that could have implications for a variety of technologies, such as desalination plants, breathable and protective fabrics, and carbon capture in gas separations...
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