The Next Big Bet In Fracking: Water

Wall Street Journal ^ | 22 August 2018 | Christopher M. Matthews

[palmer]

Math error. Good thing I was pinged later. It’s 42 gallons in a barrel and 4 cents for 10 gallons of desalination. So just 16 cents to desalinate a barrel of water.

[zeestephen]

If 4 cents per 10 gallons is correct, it’s just 16.8 cents per barrel.

However, you also need to dispose of the salt and the toxins, store the clean water, and transport it to the crops.

In any event, how much are farmers willing to pay for irrigation, and is the top soil any good in that part of Texas?

I’d be surprised if the Free Republic folks on this thread were the first people in America to think about this, which probably means that irrigation in that area is not commercially viable.

[CedarDave]

I’d be surprised if the Free Republic folks on this thread were the first people in America to think about this, which probably means that irrigation in that area is not commercially viable.

It's viable, just not a lot of water.

[CedarDave]

Good article and worth reading though the excerpt was too short. There may be some investment possibilities if someone can profitably clean up the water for recycling by the oil companies or for some other commercial purpose, including irrigation.

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[Deaf Smith]

Enough that the waste water is toxic. Usually disposed by pumping into under ground salt domes.

Each company's frac fluid is proprietary information. Even the EPA does know what is used.

[zeestephen]

One thing you may not have thought about.

Based on the article, it sounds like the huge amount of brine water is locked in just as tight as the hydrocarbon liquids and gas.

Once the hydrocarbons are depleted in a fracking well, the cost of extracting irrigation water would become untenable.

[marktwain]

Toxic by Deep Green definition, not by any testing I have read.

If the EPA does not know, they must not have as good of laboratories as I thought.

The EPA has been overhyping toxicity for decades.

[Deaf Smith]

If the EPA is not allowed on site or to pull over a WHP truck for testing, they will not know.

They can test a private water to find only natural occurring methane, but they will not detect anything else.

[crusty old prospector]

The best thing to do with it is to tidy it up a little bit and frac the next well with it. Fresh water is scarce in the Permian Basin.

[Ozark Tom]

Fifty cents for 200 gallon from a large plant?

[Deaf Smith]

That may be the best bet, the big boys recycling their own return fluids for other frac jobs.

Testing for what they need to add to the mix at the Blender.

[Deaf Smith]

Have no idea what frac gel return would be like.

[Squantos]

Looks like a watered down milky solution ? Seen this on lots of Farm to Market roads in the panhandle of Texas and wondered what it was ......

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Desalination costs 4 cents per 10 gallons. That’s $1.68 per barrel.”

Ah, I think I see it. That number should be 16.8 cents a barrel. A barrel is 42 gallons.

[crusty old prospector]

I have asked several engineers why we can’t frac with salt water. They say it has something to do with the ability to create gels that increase the viscosity of the frac fluid so that it can carry sand out into the wings of the frac. Some chemist needs to come up with a new mousetrap.

[TexasTransplant]

Try to take a saltwater shower ... lather (nope) rinse (nope)

Few seconds under fresh water all is good

[Deaf Smith]

Salt water (heavy brine) is only good for killing a well.

[crusty old prospector]

Sounds like my six years at school in Lubbock. A lot of bad hair days.