Seeking Its Own Level

From 2017-2019, UTPB’s Water in Energy Conference was markedly more successful than its founders had imagined. Designed to connect “industry leaders and researchers, sharing in best practices and cutting-edge approaches to some of the oil and gas industry’s most pressing water issues,” the conference in each of the first three years saw tremendous growth in interest and attendance.

From left: Blair Flanagan, Kate Williamson, Dr. Sandy Woodley, Jim Woodcock, Dr. Steve Beach, Dr. Becky Spurlock, Shelby Landgraf. Photo: Abe Franco, UT Permian Basin

Then 2020 happened. There was little choice but to cancel that year’s conference. From there, leadership decided to wait one more year to retool, revamp, and re-energize the conference. They added a wider range of topics and they are looking to attract a top-tier list of speakers to enlighten attendees on those topics.

Areas of unique interest will include methods of treating produced water for reuse, along with transferring knowledge about SWDs and CO2 floods to carbon capture.

UTPB President Dr. Sandra Woodley explained how the conference came to be at the school.

“We’ve been connected with that conference from the very inception. In fact, the idea spawned from the University of Texas Permian Basin College Business Advisory Council. Jim Woodcock, CEO of Midland Portfolio Partners and JJW Oil and Gas, and PBWIE Conference Chair, was at the helm of the advisory council back in 2017, and he worked with our college of business to get this off the ground.”

Because the school’s College of Engineering is home to the Texas Water Research Institute, the match seemed natural. “The expertise and experience of our faculty in applied research associated with water in energy is just a really big part of what we do here at the university,” Woodley explained. It allows current students to connect with the faculty in this area and also “with innovators in the community.”

During the COVID hiatus, the conference’s oversight was moved to the Shepperd Leadership Institute at UTPB. The goal was “reinvigorating the conference.”

The 2022 iteration, scheduled for February 22-24, will be the fourth installment.

Woodcock’s original impetus for suggesting this conference came about via a revelation about five years ago at a Midland Chamber of Commerce meeting he attended. Five of the Basin’s top producers were present, representing plans to drill approximately 25,000 wells in the near future. He realized this meant hundreds of millions of barrels of water would be required in completions. Most of that fresh water would come from reservoirs or groundwater.

Woodcock had a question about that. “I’d like to know, if my grandchildren want to live in Midland, Texas, if they’ll have fresh water to brush their teeth in a few years. I’m on the board at UTPB and also involved in the Business Advisory Council at UTPB.” In those positions, Woodcock brought his concerns to the attention of people in those entities, saying, “Let’s look at this.”

Woodcock and a group of volunteers evaluated the situation and arrived at a recommendation. He announced to the school president that he wanted to start a nonprofit program using the school’s name to establish credibility and name recognition right up front.

“The first conference we put together, we had no idea what we had. We budgeted for 150, hoping we’d have 100 people,” he recalled.

Announcing the new conference on the internet, 450 immediately signed up to attend, about half of whom had to be turned away that first year. In addition to attendance interest, they found a good lineup of sponsors, which is what makes the conference affordable to students and industry alike.

“Each year after that, we had between 500 and 600 attendees,” he said, filling the reserved room at the Midland County Horseshoe by about 75 percent, including attendees and sponsor tables.

“People come up and tell me it’s the best water conference they’ve attended,” Woodcock said.

Woodley sees this as an opportunity to share “big ideas and cutting edge technology related to water and energy. There are just so many potential uses for this technology,” she continued. Getting innovators together lets them collaborate in a variety of ways, to benefit not only the school and the industry, but the community as well.

“The oil and gas sector obviously needs water to survive. And in West Texas, we need the oil and gas industry to thrive. So the conference advances the conversation and the application of all of those things, which does provide great benefit to the entire sector here.”

Carbon Capture and Water Disposal: Steve Melzer

Steve Melzer

Steve Melzer, a consulting geological engineer in Midland working with the industry on large volume production and injection projects, is leading three Wednesday afternoon sessions regarding reservoir depressurization and produced-fluid handling (Session 6). “We’re going to go in with horizontals predominantly, as we’re doing in the Permian Basin, and taking fluids out. In order to make those fluids, you have to start de-pressuring the reservoir. If you re-pressure, you don’t make oil,” Melzer said. This is a fundamental part of getting high volumes of oil from unconventionals.

Session seven is an updated look at water disposal issues. Session eight will collect what’s known about horizontals and water production and disposal, and apply that to CO2 storage. “I don’t know that anybody’s done this yet,” he noted.

What we’re going to try to do is display the analog between what we’re doing with water disposal in these horizontal wells, where we’re making lots of water, and either reuse that water through processing techniques, or we’ve got to dispose of it.”

He sees parallels between storing water underground and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) because for CO2, “You’re going to capture it, you’re going to put it back in the ground in high volumes in reservoirs, and you’ll overpressure reservoirs simply by doing that.” He sees this already happening with water disposal.

Incidentally, Melzer is director of the annual CO2 conference in Midland, slated for December.

A better alternative for CCS is already happening in many areas: injecting it in producing formations for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) use. That way, instead of over-pressurizing reservoirs, “We’re taking out fluids to make room for the CO2 we’re putting in the reservoir to store it.”

Seismic Events and Water Disposal

It is no secret that small seismic events are increasing around SWDs in Texas, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. Melzer said the line of concern is at 5 on the Richter Scale—a line has not been crossed yet, although some fours have been noted.

In Oklahoma, he said, regulators have begun restricting the amount of water that can be injected, with positive results in reducing temblors.

So the next question is, how do operators accomplish these reductions? Some went to alternative formations that were found to be underpressured. Melzer listed the Arbuckle as one such destination. But even that has its limits.

The other alternative is not so happy. “Once [regulators] reduced those volumes that they are allowed to dispose of, then they quit drilling. Because now, you can’t justify producing new wells.”

In Texas, he noted that the Texas Railroad Commission sees the Ellenberger Formation as similar to the Arbuckle, so they are considering limitations on SWDs there.

There are water reuse options, which will be discussed at the conference as well. About 10 percent of produced water already is being reused for hydraulic fracturing. Others are working on ways to clean produced water sufficiently for agriculture use or even human consumption.

“You’re seeing many water processing plants spring up around West Texas and other places.” He feels the Permian is ahead of the pack in seeking alternative uses for produced water.

For the conference, “We’ve got some leading companies around the world in produced water processing that are going to present.”

How Do Earthquakes Happen?

A significant seismic event near Azle, Texas, in the Ft. Worth Basin was instructive. Producers were injecting water into a fault that extended all the way into the [Earth’s] crust. “So what you’re doing, is you’re overpressuring those fractures and faults in the crust, thereby releasing pent-up energy in the crust because you’re moving the plates,” Melzer explained.

Most plate intersections are under some amount of pressure against each other. This creates energy that is only released under two options: the pressure increases enough to overcome the interpolate friction; or some lubrication, like water, is applied.

What is the future of water in the semi-arid Permian Basin and elsewhere? Will there be enough water to serve the oil and gas industry and its people? More and more leaders are addressing these issues and looking for collaborative solutions. This conference is part of that mix.

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Paul Wiseman is a freelance writer in the oil and gas industry. His email is fittoprint414@gmail.com.