re: WSJ Article: America’s Biggest Oil Field Is Turning Into a Pressure Cooker

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Is this why the water guys I work with are obsessed with bugs and nanobubbles?

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I’m not familiar with nanobubbles in an O&G context so can’t comment on that.

Bugs.. maybe tangentially related? Bacteria are typically a corrosion concern first and foremost. However, sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) reduce sulfate (found in produced water to various extents) to sulfide (e.g. H2S). This can be a big deal when you’re dealing with any sort of water injection, because of the risk of reservoir souring. Once the bacteria are downhole with a food source, it’s gonna be way harder to kill them. The fear is that they will then multiply and create a bunch of H2S in the reservoir.

I’ve been out of O&G for a while now so I’m not sure how the thinking has evolved, but it used to be a big concern with waterflood offshore because seawater used for the waterflood has a fair amount of sulfates. I’d imagine the same would apply to disposal wells for brines with meaningful sulfate levels.

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Maybe the investors of these data centers would be willing to chip in on the costs to clean up that water if it means they then can use it for "free"?

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Dude, there have been hundreds of startups trying to solve this problem economically since 2020 of reusing flowback. The usage was for frac jobs, clean up produced flowback water, then use it on the next well. Data Centers wasn’t really thought of when I heard but would probably be now. None of these startups really turned into anything. All trying to get rich, and just didn’t.

I’m guessing the process is just too expensive than just get shallow aquifer water for frac jobs.

I know some Ivy League guys that tried to do this, but didn’t have oil and gas experience. They literally texted me asking how much frac water and proppant is used per well in Permian. I wanted to be like “If you’re asking that to me, then you shouldn’t likely pour your life savings or money into it.” Texted him 350k bbl for 1 mile lateral, 700k for 2 mile, 1.1 million bbl for 3 mile lateral. I don’t think that company ever got established.

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I'm no geologist or reservoir engineer.

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I'm one of those and I don't think frac trucks will make the Permian go overpressured. And if it is overpressure, you can't dispose of water in it unless you have big pumps.

However, I can see with a piss poor surface casing job on old wells, you could get some flow "up the back side".

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We've already had a wellsite blow up and a deadly H2S release recently. Just as soon have the geyser shooting produced water in the air. Something else M-Tex can get sued for.

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This will be what takes out Boss.

Look at the OT for once. People that actually know WTH they're talking about. Nice break from normal.

Good luck getting out the salt. Permian produces millions of barrels of brine per day. You could make a Mount Everest of salt and during the next glacial ice age the roads would never freeze. Can clean it up real nice though.

Their cost savings method is going to make the cost go up for the rest of us. Right?

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We could call this solution... Coolant. We could offer it in many colors and ph levels.

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If only they’d invent something like this.

Double post