Drillers in Permian Basin Push for Recycling Water

Drought in West Texas has Permian Basin drillers searching for new solutions for hydraulic fracturing operations, and looking to water recycling as an economically viable choice

As drought conditions in West Texas continue to parch freshwater sources, Permian Basin drillers have been looking for new water supplies for water-intensive hydraulic fracturing operations. Water recycling of non-potable brackish or produced water is quickly becoming more economically viable as water prices continue to rise and water treatment technologies improve.

Through a combination of treated brackish water, often found in many southwest groundwater aquifers, recycled frac water and recycled effluent from municipalities, drilling companies are looking at a number of options for leaving freshwater alone.

"There is no rule that requires other companies to do that, but our chairman and our board said, ‘You're going to do it.' So for us it's a rule," said Cal Cooper of Apache Corp. in testimony before a joint hearing of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committees last month. "We were driven in the beginning by economics and by the fact that all of the guys that live there didn't want to use one drop of fresh water."

Another company, Fasken Oil and Ranch, a Midland-based drilling operation, has drilled more than 5,000 vertical wells on one 160,000-acre ranch northwest of Midland, said Fasken regulatory affairs coordinator Jimmy Carlile. Each well requires upward of 43,000 barrels of water, and the company plans on drilling about 2,000 more wells in the area. By June 2014, after years of developing technology for treating brackish water, Faskin's eliminated the use of freshwater from their drilling operations on their northwest ranch, Carlile said.

Underneath regions of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle lies the Santa Rosa aquifer -- a deep underground body of water with a high sulfate content, making it undrinkable and too contaminated for hydraulic fracturing. It has been largely left alone by both municipalities and, until now, drillers because of its low water quality.

"Our groundwater wells are decent, but in no sense prolific," said Carlile, speaking of the groundwater underneath their ranch. "We can continue to use freshwater, and we would have enough, but there'll be none left if we did."

Both Fasken and Apache developed ways to eradicate sulfates and chlorides from the brackish water. The two companies use a nano-filtration system that filters out sulfates and chlorides from both brackish water and "produced water," or the groundwater that returns to the surface during the hydraulic fracturing process with even higher amounts of contaminants. To date, Fasken has recycled over 3 million barrels of water to use in fracturing operations.

Pioneer Natural Resources, an Irving-based oil and gas exploration and drilling company with the largest lease-hold area in the Permian Basin, is taking another route to wean itself off freshwater supplies. Last year, the company struck a deal with the city of Odessa to renovate the city's water treatment facility in exchange for its wastewater. The company is also in talks over a similar deal with the city of Midland -- a $100 million facility renovation in exchange for 20 years of the city's wastewater at a discounted rate.

Source: MRT

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Taxonomy

• Water Reuse & Recycling
• Technology
• Fracking