water pipelines

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.

The Permian is experiencing the build-out of a wide variety of midstream infrastructure: crude oil and natural gas gathering systems, gas processing plants and crude, gas and NGL takeaway pipelines. Lately, there’s also been a rush to develop pipelines to deliver water to wells for use in hydraulic fracturing, as well as pipes to transport produced water from the lease to disposal wells and produced-water recycling plants. By installing and expanding these water and produced-water pipeline systems — some of them hundreds of miles long — Permian producers and third-party water-logistics providers are reducing the need for trucks on the Permian’s congested roads and significantly reducing per-barrel water transportation costs. Today, we continue our blog series on water-related pipeline, storage and treatment infrastructure in the Permian’s Delaware and Midland basins.

A number of Permian producers and their contractors are working to rein in well-completion and operating costs by developing extensive pipeline networks to efficiently deliver fresh, brackish or treated water to new wells for use in hydraulic fracturing — and deliver produced water from producing wells to treatment and disposals sites. This water-related infrastructure build-out is driven by a combination of necessity and economy, and is made possible in part by the trend among producers to assemble very large, contiguous leaseholds so they can drill longer horizontal wells. Today, we continue our series on water-related pipeline, storage and treatment infrastructure.

To complete a single two-mile horizontal well in the Permian, producers or their contractors need to bring in several hundred thousand barrels of fresh, treated or brackish water — not an easy task in dry and dusty West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. And the water challenges don’t end there. Each barrel of crude oil that emerges from a Permian well can generate even more produced water that needs to be transported and safely disposed of. With Permian production of crude and associated natural gas rising fast, the sprawling region is experiencing a rapid build-out of water pipeline networks and other infrastructure aimed at keeping pace with hydrocarbon production growth. Today, we begin a blog series on water-related pipeline, storage and treatment infrastructure in the U.S.’s fastest-growing crude oil production area.