Title: Oilfield Water Management - A New Mexico-Texas-Louisiana Assessment
Abstract:
In the adjoining states of New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, nearly 70 billion barrels of produced water from oilfield operations were disposed of underground over the last decade, culminating with almost 9 billion barrels in 2022. Injection of such large volumes of water comes with numerous financial, technical, logistical, environmental, and regulatory challenges. While water management as a practice has gone through dramatic evolution and maturation over the last decade, particularly with regard to the widespread development of networked infrastructure, use of minimally treated produced water for well completions, and establishment of a fully actualized water midstream sector, concerns persist about how to manage future produced water volumes effectively, safely, and sustainably. In this talk, we will examine important trends in oilfield water production, use, recycling, and disposal, focusing on both ongoing challenges (e.g., water scarcity, subsurface pressurization, induced seismicity, pore space competition) and opportunities (e.g., beneficial water reuse outside oilfield operations, commercial solids extraction) for the oil and gas industry.
Speaker Bio:
Rob Bruant is the Director of Product and Research for B3 Insight, a technology firm specializing in collecting, aggregating, and analyzing water and subsurface injection data, focusing on the oil and gas sector. Previously, Rob served in various roles for BP and Pioneer Natural Resources, including Subsurface Manager, Reservoir Engineer, and Petroleum Systems Analyst. Rob also held positions of Instructor and Research Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, focusing on carbon sequestration and groundwater remediation.
Rob holds a B.A. in Geosciences from Franklin and Marshall College, a Ph.D. in Hydrology from the University of Arizona, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He is the Membership Chairperson for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) Technical Section, Vice-Chairperson for the Texas Water and Energy Institute Advisory Board, and a member of the Produced Water Society Board of Directors. He is the recipient of SPE's Outstanding Technical Editor, Regional Service, Regional HSSE, and Section Service awards. Rob is a licensed Professional Geoscientist, Professional Hydrologist (Ground Water and Water Quality), and Certified Petroleum Engineer.
