Horizontal fracking revolutionized the oil and gas industry a decade ago, opening up access to natural resources previously thought inaccessible deep underground.
Now the industry is ready for its next revolution: shifting the costly water management paradigm from waste to revenue stream.
Not only do oilfield developers use a lot of fresh water – 2.2 billion barrels in 2017 – they end up with a lot of briny water they have to dispose of – 660 million barrels last year, according to Boston-based Bluefield Research.
Imagine the economics if that water was a source of revenue – instead of costly waste.
South Louisiana-based Blackstar Environmental Group has created a technology that can treat the water directly at a well site. The process separates out clean water, salt and skim oil, which are valuable resources to be used again or sold.
“Saltwater disposal is always one of the major cost centers,” said Gifford Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association. “Having a product like what Blackstar has created certainly can solve a lot of the challenges and can potentially be a major cost saver for producers.”
Dealing with the water that’s produced when a well is drilled involves major transportation costs, Briggs said. Those costs are eliminated with Blackstar’s on-site technology.
“Depending on where you are, if you don't have an injection well on-site, you've got to take all the produced water, load it into trucks, transport those trucks and pay to have the disposal done,” Briggs said.
“If you instead have the ability to just hook (the water stream) up to Blackstar’s machine and do it all on-site, it has potential to save you from a time standpoint, from a management standpoint and certainly a financial one,” he said. “And being able to sell the salt that's separated out is an added benefit.”
Salt is in demand for use in swimming pools, water softeners, road de-icing in cold-weather climates and more. And there is rising demand for fresh drinking water and water for industry and agriculture. The global water and wastewater treatment market is expected to hit $675 billion by 2025, according to Felton, California-based Hexa Research.
“Companies have been giving away their waste stream and paying somebody to take it away and getting hit with extra charges, like washout fees,” said Blackstar CEO Ben Vinet. “Our research in certain regions has shown that we can cut companies’ waste stream costs by as much as 50 percent.”
The technology underwent a six-month pilot in Wyoming this year. State officials there concluded it was a successful, environmentally safe option.
In fact, following the pilot, the state legislature drafted and passed "HB0172 Produced Water Treatment" exempting companies from paying taxes on flare gas used to process by-product water.
“This is a green technology,” Vinet said. “In Wyoming, we're taking the waste from one industry and creating a beneficial reuse – fresh water for agricultural irrigation.
“Instead of continuing to draw on the aquifer, oil and gas companies can recycle the water instead of using new water,” he said.
Another ecofriendly outcome from these efforts is the elimination of a good amount of trucking that damages county and city road infrastructure. There are even reports, such as a study led by the University of Bristol, that show a link between wastewater injection into the ground and man-made earthquakes.
The Blackstar technology “is going to be revolutionary to the industry. It is something nobody has ever been able to do at this level on location,” said Robby Leger, partner with Lafayette, Louisiana-based consulting firm VCG Energy LLC, a firm hired by oil companies to serve as on-location manager for drilling jobs. “It's going to bring transformation for oil companies that they have an option to actually make money on their wastewater.”
The oil and gas industry isn’t the only sector that can benefit from Blackstar’s technology, he said. Another option could be humanitarian efforts in clean water-deprived regions of the world or agriculture watering projects for drought-stricken areas.
“There are so many avenues this technology can go to. In dry regions of the world, it can turn wastewater into safe drinking water.”
South Louisiana-based Blackstar Environmental Group has created a technology that can treat the water directly at a well site. The process separates out clean water, salt and skim oil, which are valuable resources to be used again or sold.
“Saltwater disposal is always one of the major cost centers,” said Gifford Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association. “Having a product like what Blackstar has created certainly can solve a lot of the challenges and can potentially be a major cost saver for producers.”
Dealing with the water that’s produced when a well is drilled involves major transportation costs, Briggs said. Those costs are eliminated with Blackstar’s on-site technology.
“Depending on where you are, if you don't have an injection well on-site, you've got to take all the produced water, load it into trucks, transport those trucks and pay to have the disposal done,” Briggs said.
“If you instead have the ability to just hook (the water stream) up to Blackstar’s machine and do it all on-site, it has potential to save you from a time standpoint, from a management standpoint and certainly a financial one,” he said. “And being able to sell the salt that's separated out is an added benefit.”
Salt is in demand for use in swimming pools, water softeners, road de-icing in cold-weather climates and more. And there is rising demand for fresh drinking water and water for industry and agriculture. The global water and wastewater treatment market is expected to hit $675 billion by 2025, according to Felton, California-based Hexa Research.
“Companies have been giving away their waste stream and paying somebody to take it away and getting hit with extra charges, like washout fees,” said Blackstar CEO Ben Vinet. “Our research in certain regions has shown that we can cut companies’ waste stream costs by as much as 50 percent.”
The technology underwent a six-month pilot in Wyoming this year. State officials there concluded it was a successful, environmentally safe option.
In fact, following the pilot, the state legislature drafted and passed "HB0172 Produced Water Treatment" exempting companies from paying taxes on flare gas used to process by-product water.
“This is a green technology,” Vinet said. “In Wyoming, we're taking the waste from one industry and creating a beneficial reuse – fresh water for agricultural irrigation.
“Instead of continuing to draw on the aquifer, oil and gas companies can recycle the water instead of using new water,” he said.
Another ecofriendly outcome from these efforts is the elimination of a good amount of trucking that damages county and city road infrastructure. There are even reports, such as a study led by the University of Bristol, that show a link between wastewater injection into the ground and man-made earthquakes.
The Blackstar technology “is going to be revolutionary to the industry. It is something nobody has ever been able to do at this level on location,” said Robby Leger, partner with Lafayette, Louisiana-based consulting firm VCG Energy LLC, a firm hired by oil companies to serve as on-location manager for drilling jobs. “It's going to bring transformation for oil companies that they have an option to actually make money on their wastewater.”
The oil and gas industry isn’t the only sector that can benefit from Blackstar’s technology, he said. Another option could be humanitarian efforts in clean water-deprived regions of the world or agriculture watering projects for drought-stricken areas.
“There are so many avenues this technology can go to. In dry regions of the world, it can turn wastewater into safe drinking water.”
