In a 2019 website post, the Produced Water Society estimated that the Permian Basin produces between 9 million and 15 million barrels of water per day. To put that in perspective, 15 million barrels equals 1933.4 acre feet, and Austin’s Lake Travis has a capacity of 1,135,000 acre feet. At that rate, Permian water production […]
Fracs in Focus
While not yet out of the woods, the oil and gas patient is doing better as 2020 gets further in the rear view mirror. Recovery signs are pointing upward—and none more so than those surrounding most types of energy demand and, therefore, energy production—and frac’ing is vital to that. The Institute for Energy Research reported […]
De-mystifying ESG
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, released in 1962, is considered the starting point of environmental awareness for the general public. That book was focused on overuse of pesticides and their effect on bird populations—hence the “silence” Carson saw coming to springtime. Today that concern has spread greatly, to include fossil fuels, among other things. Investors in […]
Rystad Energy: Permian leads increased hydraulic fracturing activity
Oslo-based Rystad Energy said July 23 its analysis shows that new hydraulic fracturing operations in the U.S., which fell to a low of 325 wells in June during the coronavirus pandemic, are expected to return to above 400 in July. “Recovery will be especially evident in the Permian Basin,” Rystad said, “where activity has nearly […]
Permian Basin returns to status as top destination for fracturing crews
Investment firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said this week Permian Basin is again the top location of U.S. hydraulic fracturing crews. Marcellus Basin in Pennsylvania had replaced Permian as No. 1 in Tudor’s previous report, but 10 more crews have returned to oilfield since – most of them in Permian. Of the 450 available […]
Belting It Out
A 16.6-mile-long covered conveyor belt system would bring sand for hydraulic fracturing from West Texas into Southeast New Mexico, according to a development plan written by OLC Kermit, LLC, a subsidiary of Atlas Sand Company, LLC. The plan was submitted in January to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Carlsbad Field Office as part of […]
Rystad report shows record decline of fracturing operation starts
Rystad Energy said Wednesday the total number of started fracturing operations is expected to fall below 300 wells in April (about 200 in Permian Basin and less than 50 each in Eagle Ford and Bakken). That’s a decline of 62.8 percent in started fracturing operations between February and April 2020 “as the majority of public […]
Evolution of the Dissolvable Frac Plug
Dissolvable technology has been an evolving success story — innovation answering necessity in an industry never short of challenges. Today, dissolving plugs are a frequent if not typical component of most well completions, in all wellbore or downhole environments. Dissolvable plugs have proven to be particularly effective in long laterals with higher stage density. In […]
Line in the Sand
Basin frac sand mines may face a shakeout in the last quarter of 2019. By Paul Wiseman The oil and gas economy is always compared to a roller coaster ride, but nowhere in the sector has the ride been crazier over the last decade than in frac sand. Until the early 2000s, frac sand mining […]
Spillover
Last month’s issue was called our “Water Issue” (see photo), so we can’t slap that label on this issue, or this coverage, anyway. We’ll just call this “Overflow.” It’s some additional insights we weren’t able to squeeze into the April issue. By Jesse Mullins Some isolated, maybe random, observations about H2O and the tidal […]