Oil and gas companies seek solutions to wastewater, drought in New Mexico, Permian Basin

Wastewater from oil and gas operations was an emerging problem in southeast New Mexico, host of the Permian Basin oilfields and severe drought, forcing several of the region’s largest operators to act.

For every barrel of oil produced in the basin, up to 10 barrels of wastewater is generated – a combination of flowback from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations and formation water brought up with crude oil and natural gas.

It also takes a lot of water to frack, the process of pumping fluids underground to break up underground shale rocks so fossil fuels can be extracted, about 4 million gallons per well, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

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That’s an issue amid worsening aridity Permian Basin region, which spans from New Mexico into West Texas.

Industry leaders described their efforts to address the strain fossil fuels put on New Mexico’s scarce water supplies during Thursday’s Carlsbad Mayor’s Energy Summit at the Walter Gerrell’s Performing Arts Center.

The annual conference sees corporate leaders in the energy sector, local elected officials and others in the Carlsbad community meet and discuss the industry’s progress toward generating fossil fuels and respond to impacts to water supplies.

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The industry has “evolved” from using freshwater to brackish, or high-salinity, water said Joe De Almeida, director of water strategy with Occidental Petroleum while also treating produced water for use in subsequent drilling.

He said the company is recycling about 85 percent of its produced water for use in fracking.

“We’ve come a long way in produced water management in our recycle activities," he said.

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Stefanie Asher with Exxon Mobil said the company was working to find ways to develop energy “in a sustainable manner,” including reducing its use of freshwater.

“We can take this water that we’re producing and use it in a beneficial way,” she said.

Peter McDonald at Devon Energy said the oil and gas company was working to reduce disposal of excess via injection wells, which have recently been tied to increased earthquakes throughout the region.

“Reuse and recycle is amazing. We can reduce the freshwater amount. But there is some point where all that water comes back to the surface,” McDonald said. “Most of us don’t feel comfortable that disposal is the path forward. Finding ways to get this water to a beneficial use is paramount.”

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Austin Beam with ConocoPhillips was working to increase its use of brackish and recycled produced water by partnering with other companies focused on water management within the oil and gas industry.

“This is a space where collaboration is critical,” he said.

Michael Reitz with EnWater Solutions is one of those companies looking to aid the industry’s attempts to address shortfalls in water management.

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He said operators will need to find a balance to reduce seismicity while still allowing some disposal by targeting the geological formations that will not cause earthquakes if pressurized by injection.

And recycling produced water, Reitz said, was needed not only for oil and gas but also to boost water supplies state-wide.

“I do think the industry is making major strides to have a long-term solution,” he said. “The end all be all is being able to irrigate with this product at some point. We’ll get there. Injection needs to be reduced.”

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Part of that means improving the regulatory environment in New Mexico, to make it cheaper for desalination facilities to be installed and operated in the state, said Whitney Dobson with Aris Water Solutions.

She said New Mexico was “behind” Texas in developing regulations supportive of the water midstream sector.

“Those investments might not come to New Mexico,” she said. “We really need to have that assurance that the standards are there and that we can work through it.”

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Efforts to mitigate oil and gas impacts on the environment could become even more important as more companies moved into the Permian Basin, aiming to get a piece of its booming oil industry.

Tracee Bentley, chief executive officer of the Permian Strategic Partnership said at the summit that the industry in the region would need to add 190,000 workers to account for growth by 2040.

“This energy is going to get developed, one way or another,” she said.

A newcomer to the Permian Basin oilfields, Civitas Resources recently announced it bought up about $2.1 billion worth of oil and gas assets in the eastern Midland sub-basin of the Permian, expanding its focus from the Denver Julesburg (DJ) Basin to southeast New Mexico and West Texas.

Civitas Vice President of Production Amanda Rebol said the company first entered the Permian in June with an acquisition in the Permian's western Delaware sub-basin in southeast New Mexico.

“The Delaware Basin for us really represents an expansion of our strategy and diversifying our assets,” she said.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Oil and gas companies search for solutions to water woes in New Mexico