For those of you in the water treatment and recycling business, the New Mexico legislature recently passed ground-breaking legislation for water conservation advocates. New Mexico House Bill HB546 cleared the path in 2019 for water recycling going forward, by voiding agreements or covenants which require the operator to use fresh water, if more suitable recycledRead more
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On May 19, 2020, Governor Stitt of Oklahoma signed Senate Bill 1875, the Oil and Gas Produced Water and Waste Recycling and Reuse Act. This is important legislation that opens the door to recycling for operators and service providers, and anyone else. As with legislation which clarified ownership and liabilities in Texas in 2015, OklahomaRead more
On May 5th, the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) released a temporary exception for oil and gas storage wells: “16 Texas Administrative Code § 3.95: An exception authorizing underground hydrocarbon storage facility located in a geological formation other than an underground salt formation.” This eases regulations for operators looking to permit a storage well, technically aRead more
Many of us jumped to attention with news of the recent high magnitude event near Mentone, Texas (see some of our earlier blogs on the March 26 M 4.6-5.0 earthquake in the Texas Delaware basin). Interestingly, we failed to also point out there have been at least 3 series of recent U.S. based seismic eventsRead more
Curious about what the future holds? We’ve run some quick scenarios to frame out what the future might hold for the water business in oil and gas. EnergyMakers has long advised clients to mitigate price swings and drilling fall-off by maintaining a production-related foundation to the business. The benefit of this strategy is about toRead more
The Produced Water Society recently reached out to Laura Capper, founder and CEO of EnergyMakers Advisory Group (EMAG), regarding the recent seismicity in the Delaware Basin, including a 5.0 M earthquake between Midland and El Paso. Below is the full text of the article. Despite inconclusive research on induced seismicity and saltwater disposal in theRead more
EnergyMakers Advisory Group has long been cautioning stakeholders not to be too quick to indict disposal wells for Delaware, Texas area seismicity. Other factors may also be at play in the region. While SWD disposal has proven to be causal to induced seismicity in many areas including Arkansas, Colorado, parts of Texas, and broadly inRead more
When it rains, it pours! By now you have likely heard of the 5.0 earthquake detected in Culberson county, 175 miles W of El Paso, about 26 miles West of Mentone, Texas. I checked on the population of Mentone – the last update was in 2010 with a reported population of 19, which at the time wasRead more
Congratulations to DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) on the closure of their successful acquisition of Indigo Natural Resources’ interest in a gathering and disposal well system and gathering pipeline in the Haynesville shale formation of Louisiana. The transaction includes a total purchase price of $2.25 billion in cash, plus a $400 million milestone payment upon completionRead more
Operators appear to be getting bolder as they go deeper, with the Texas RRC’s approval. BHP Billiton successfully permitted three (3) 90,000-bpd saltwater disposal wells recently in the Devonian/Silurian in Reeves county, at depths between 15,000 and 17,000 ft. Only time will tell how much produced water these high-dollar wells will really take; today, fewRead more