Permian Needs $9B Worth of New Wells

Permian Needs $9B Worth of New Wells
As much as $9 billion will be needed over the next decade just to throw away dirty water in the world's busiest shale field.

(Bloomberg) -- As much as $9 billion will be needed over the next decade just to throw away dirty water in the world’s busiest shale field, according to Raymond James & Associates Inc.

The scale of the challenge is mind-boggling: drillers typically pump 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water into an oil well to fracture the surrounding rocks. In return, as much as 10 barrels come rushing back out for every one barrel of crude, Raymond James analyst Marshall Adkins said in a note to clients on Monday.

Given that recycling efforts aren’t robust enough to handle the 17.5 million barrels of dirty water produced DAILY in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, oil companies have to do something else with all that salty slurry, Adkins said. After all, so-called produced water is 10 times saltier than seawater and can be tainted with heavy metals and radioactivity.

“Most investors are simply unaware of the fact that as crude production grows, produced ‘dirty’ water grows even faster,” he wrote. “As the Permian Basin shifts further into manufacturing mode, the water growth we project will create the need for nearly 1,000 additional salt water disposal wells by 2030.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
David Wethe in Houston at dwethe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net
Joe Carroll, Steven Frank



WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Robert Sinclair  |  August 08, 2019
This stuff can be cleaned up quite easily, however the real issue is who will pay?? What we really need to see is the current condition of the effluent & provide a solution on how to reach the required finished quality, however things may have been much easier had this been done after each fracking operation so that removal of unwanted contaminates be performed thus leaving the chemicals in solution so that the water be utilized for further fracking.
Harry  |  August 02, 2019
Wall Street is just now beginning to realize shale is a scam - a latter-day Ponzi scheme.
Robert Marshall  |  August 02, 2019
What happened to the water remediation & reuse systems that were being developed several years ago - there were a variety of static and mobile systems coming on the market - we were always interested in looking at underwriting venture capital for some of these systems. It's a very good idea, cost effective & environmentally friendly. The underground water table in the Permian and in other shale plays is not unlimited.
Joseph Harrer  |  August 02, 2019
I'm an independent Hydrogeologist and should be swimming in water projects; but can't find the work. I came down here to help with water availability and/or reclamation.
Stan Ditka  |  July 31, 2019
Don't Worry we got this. See Below https://www.energy.gov/fe/articles/energy-department-announces-5m-produced-water-treatment-technologies www.netl.doe.gov
Victor Edwards  |  July 31, 2019
Twenty five years hence this will be a "dead zone" and people will be forbidden to go or live there.
Seyedali Beheshtinejad  |  July 30, 2019
Extraction of minerals and metals from produced water can be considered to make the process of produced water treatment more economical
Bill  |  July 30, 2019
Rather than pump dirty water into 9 billion dollars worth of wells, perhaps remediation of the water for reuse in fracing would be more productive over the long run?
Perk  |  July 30, 2019
That is not the truth. The well will flow back that ratio until clean up is complete, then will flow oil at a very low water cut rate.
Doug Denning  |  July 29, 2019
There has to be a way to deal with the returned dirty water. Where would a person who is not in the Oil & Gas industries find information about this dirty water? Its chemical make-up? Thank You Doug


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