Houston Chronicle – Business / Energy
Whether by pipeline tanker, truck or hose, more water is moving around the arid Permian Basin than crude oil at any given moment.
Water has become the lifeblood of the modern energy industry with hydraulic fracturing using high-pressured slurry of water, sand and chemicals to unlock oil and gas from shale formations in Texas and across the country. In the arid Permian Basin, the nation’s most productive oil field, drilling and fracking operations consume more than 195 million gallons of water per day in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico — enough water to fill nearly 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
All this has made water and water management in the Permian a big business that’s only expected to get bigger, following the recent enactment of three laws in Texas and New Mexico, the two states encompassing the sprawling oil basin. The laws, which essentially clarify water rights issues and encourage the reuse of water, could pump billions more dollars of investment into the region’s rapidly growing water recycling industry. Read more…