produced water pipelines

Through the early years of the Shale Era, produced water gathering systems in the Permian were mostly small, simple and focused solely on transporting the salty, petroleum- and mineral-tainted water emerging from wells to nearby saltwater disposal wells. In the 2020s, though, these systems — now mostly owned and operated by third-party produced water specialists — have been becoming larger, more interconnected, and more likely to include at least some water recycling and reuse. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll continue our look at big, far-reaching produced water systems in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. 

There’s a lot going on in the Permian produced water space lately. Crude-oil-focused production in the prolific shale play is generating vast and increasing volumes of produced water that needs to be recycled or injected into disposal wells. State regulators, concerned about injection-related seismic activity, are tightening their rules, ramping up oversight and cracking down. Produced water gathering systems are being expanded and long-distance pipelines are being planned and built. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the latest developments and where things are heading.

It’s been an exciting and productive few years for Permian producers, but it’s also been a period fraught with challenges. Dealing with a mid-decade crash in crude oil prices. Struggling to improve yields from the Wolfcamp, Bone Spring and other hydrocarbon-rich formations to lower breakeven costs. Coping with major pipeline takeaway constraints — for crude and natural gas — and the resulting price discounts. Now, the challenge of produced water has come to the fore. Horizontal wells in some parts of the Permian generate six, eight, even 10 barrels of produced water per barrel of crude, and all of it needs to be either disposed of or treated. The volumes are enormous, the permitting and logistics mind-boggling, and the costs — well, you can imagine. Today, we consider the Permian’s produced-water conundrum as crude and gas production volumes ramp up. Warning!: Today’s blog is a blatant advertorial for new reports by B3 Insight on Permian produced water.

Production growth in the Permian Basin continues to have profound effects on the crude oil, natural gas and NGL markets. It also has helped to spur the rapid development of what is, in effect, another midstream sector: one that focuses on the delivery of large volumes of water for hydraulic fracturing and — just as important, and even more challenging — the gathering and transportation of vast and increasing amounts of “produced water” that emerge from Permian wells with crude and associated gas. Until now, most Permian produced water has come from legacy conventional wells, but last year, the water volumes from unconventional, tight-oil wells caught up and their share will only rise from here on out. That’s a problem for producers — and a big one — because they can’t just re-inject the water back into the producing formation like they can with conventional wells. Today, we discuss highlights from RBN’s new Drill Down Report on water-related issues and infrastructure in the U.S.’s hottest shale play.