For such a simple molecule of two hydrogen atoms to one oxygen atom, water carries with it significant complexities wherever it flows. In its simplicity is the versatility that has led to the application of water in all facets of life. Take energy production, for example. Not only is water critical in the production of energy; it also is its own waste product. The relationship between the two is loosely defined as the water-energy nexus. From electrical power generation to the extraction, transportation and processing of oil and gas and more, maintaining balance within the nexus is a primary goal.

One of the petroleum industry’s great ironies is that it takes water to make oil recovery possible. Known for a dogged refusal to mix, water and oil manage to coexist in reservoir formations that, without using one to drill for the other, producing either or both would be impossible. Water is a primary ingredient in the drilling fluid pumped downhole to keep the drillbit cool before carrying cuttings back to the surface for the geologists to decipher like tea leaves, looking for insights into the formation.

Water is the hammer cracking open fractures in shale while simultaneously delivering proppant to hold open the escape route for oil and gas to find the fastest path to freedom. Water cleans the new well of excess solids once it is put on production during a flowback. Over the multi-decade life of the well, wastewater will be produced that will require disposal or recycling. The story of oil (and gas, too) is a water story.

Because of this duality, the business of an E&P company is more about safe and responsible water handling than it is about recovering oil and gas. As Global Water Intelligence reported in a March 2011 market profile, “The oil industry is effectively a water industry that delivers oil as a byproduct. In the North American onshore oil industry, eight barrels of water are brought to the surface for every barrel of oil.”

However, the petroleum industry long ago found a way to make those eight barrels of produced water work for them in applications like EOR. In the development of shale resources, those barrels, for example, can become after treatment a supply source for reuse in hydraulic fracturing operations.

The onset of the shale gale more than a decade ago brought with it the need for significant quantities of water to fracture and free the trapped oil and gas, but not without a cost. In 2014 the unconventional oil and gas industry spent close to $6.4 billion on water supply chain management, according to a Bluefield Research report.

Like most everything in oil and gas E&P, adoption of recycle and reuse is shale-play dependent.

What works in one might not work in another due to a variety of criteria like access to water supplies, regulatory factors, proximity to population centers and suitable underground formations for wastewater disposal. However, just like no two reservoirs are alike, there is no “one-size-fits-all shale plays” water management solution when it comes to unconventional oil and gas development.

“While all operators seek to minimize costs, the economics of water supply chain management are largely driven by basin-specific water regulations and constraints,” said the authors of a May 2016 report on water usage in U.S. unconventional oil and gas drilling published by the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Those basin-specific differences have kept water management teams busy in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford looking for suitable supplies while teams at work in the Bakken and Marcellus look for suitable disposal solutions.

According to the SIPA report, operators face no serious water constraints in the Bakken region due to its low population density and abundant freshwater supply. With surface water options like the Missouri River and Lake Sakakawea, Bakken producers have little need to use groundwater.

In the Marcellus, the Susquehanna and Ohio rivers provide ample surface water, but tight regulatory oversight has lead to increased water management costs. The high population density of the region is cited in the report as being a major regulatory driver.

Standing in stark contrast to the Bakken and Marcellus are the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford regions where operators face “more acute water constraints, including high groundwater stress and an ongoing threat of drought,” the SIPA report stated, noting that water demand for hydraulic fracturing is met through the use of groundwater resources.

While recycling and reuse are becoming a larger part of standard operating procedures in the development of unconventional oil and gas resources, there are some regions where the cost to do so is greater than the cost to dispose. In the Bakken, for example, there is little incentive for operators to recycle as there are “plentiful wastewater disposal wells” and the wastewater has “a saline content higher than ocean water” and makes recycling a challenge, according to the SIPA report.

Recycling rates in the Bakken are about 2%, according to the Bluefield Research report. In contrast—due to a lack of disposal wells in Pennsylvania and large transportation costs of trucking wastewater to Ohio for disposal—the average recycling rates in the Marcellus are 80% to 90% of the total wastewater produced in the basin, according to the SIPA report.

For the Permian Basin, the average recycling rate for the Midland sub-basin is about 2%, with no recycling reported in the Delaware sub-basin. Brackish groundwater provides 80% and fresh groundwater provides 20% of the Delaware’s water supplies, the report noted. In the Eagle Ford there is a large volume of flowback water available for recycling, but its oily and highly saline nature make recycling an “often prohibitively expensive” option, according to the SIPA report.

Advances in technology and the smart management that experience brings have allowed the industry to better balance meeting operators’ needs with that of the public. For example, centralized onsite water storage and recycling facilities have reduced transportation demands, leading to fewer trucks on the road. Pipelines are replacing trucks as midstream infrastructure is being built out to move water from Point A to Points B, C or Z.

The Internet of Things and Big Data are gaining greater acceptance in the water management world, with hardware and software companies developing the robust kit needed to make real-time monitoring and remote operation of water systems possible. Wastewater can now be traded like a commodity through a system that marries the beauty of online booking systems like Airbnb with the efficiency of a Google search, turning a cost center into a potential profit center for operators.

This article is taken from the first issue of Hart Energy’s Water Management Techbook, which also included an extensive listing of key players in the water management technology space. The issue also looked at a few best practices when it comes to the safe and secure management of water resources.