Drowning in dirty fracking water, Permian seeks $22 billion lifeline
In the dry, dusty plains of West Texas, home to America’s most prolific oil play, the problem isn’t too little water, it’s too much of it.
Just ask Will Hickey, the 31-year-old chief executive officer of Colgate Energy.
Standing on a 26-foot high rig platform in Texas’s Reeves County, Hickey watches as contractors maneuver drilling pipe almost 10,000 feet underground in search of oil. Just a half-mile away, another rig is equally hard at work. But this one, operated by WaterBridge Resources LLC, isn’t seeking oil. It’s making a hole to dispose of the vast amount of water generated from local wells.
‘‘If we don’t have a water solution we can’t produce the well, it’s as simple as that,’’ Hickey said in an interview. “It used to be that each operator handled water themselves. But the sheer volume of what’s now being produced has created an opportunity for specialized water companies to step in.”
With fracking, explorers blast water, sand and chemicals down wells to crack open the oil-bearing shale below. As oil is pumped up, so is the water, combined with salt-laden water from underground reservoirs to create a toxic mix that would devastate farmland if released on the surface. With as many as four barrels of water produced for every barrel of oil, it’s a disposal nightmare that could add as much as $6 a barrel to company break-evens by 2025, according to a recent Wood Mackenzie study.Resources LLC, isn’t seeking oil. It’s making a hole to dispose of the vast amount of water generated from local wells.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/drowning-in-dirty-water-permian-seeks-dollar22-billion-lifeline/ar-BBMCs3r?li=BBnbfcN
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