Gaia Masterclass: From Well Pad to Watershed: Unlocking the Hidden Water Value in Energy Infrastructure
Speakers:
Panelist: Trey Shaffer, Resource Environmental Solutions (RES)
Abstract:
Water is a vital resource, and its use and prioritization can create tension between communities and the assets developed to meet energy demand. Volumetric Water Benefits (VWB) provides a universal, scalable framework to help mitigate these conflicts by quantifying how land and ecological management actions influence water availability, quality, and risk in volumetric terms.
Applicable across industrial settings, including oil and gas operations, VWB is particularly relevant in landscapes where large land areas are impacted and operational decisions directly affect hydrologic processes such as runoff, infiltration, storage, and water use. While much of the service model has been developed in the United States, the underlying framework and benefits are not constrained by geography and are well suited for global application across diverse hydrologic and regulatory environments. By translating these hydrologic changes into measurable outcomes, the framework enables operators to evaluate how specific actions alter water balances and influence both operational performance and surrounding water systems. In addition, quantified volumetric water benefits can be treated as a transferable commodity, enabling organizations to generate credits that may be transacted or leased to willing buyers as part of broader water stewardship and sustainability strategies.
As national water stress increases, legislative restrictions and guidelines around water use are expected, with early signals already emerging at the state level. VWB is well positioned to serve as a universal framework for water management in a more stringent regulatory environment.
Across oil and gas assets (where well spacing, rights-of-way, and infrastructure footprint extend over millions of acres), VWB treats land as a hydrologically active system capable of generating measurable water value. The methodology links practices such as soil health improvement, wetland restoration, and watershed protection to outcomes including increased infiltration, enhanced groundwater recharge, reduced runoff, and improved water quality.
Expressing these outcomes in volumetric terms (e.g., acre-feet or gallons) enables integration with water accounting, operational planning, and risk management systems. In doing so, VWB provides a common language to align operational efficiency with environmental performance and stakeholder expectations. Application of the framework demonstrates the potential to reduce freshwater sourcing requirements, lower produced water handling and disposal volumes, and strengthen resilience in water-constrained basins while addressing community concerns in water-stressed regions.
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Gaia Masterclass: The economic impacts of climate change
Speakers: Professor Richard Tol, University of Sussex
Moderator: Farshid Mostowfi, SLB & SDTS Chairperson
Abstract:
This masterclass surveys current estimates of how climate change affects human welfare. Comparative static studies show that the modal impact of a 2.5 degree Celsius increase is equivalent to losing some 2% of income — or hundred years of global warming is about as bad as losing one year of economic growth. The uncertainty is large and skewed the wrong way. Poorer countries are much more vulnerable than richer countries. Adding omitted impacts doubles the estimate, and adding growth effects doubles the estimate again. Econometric estimates of the impact of weather shocks on economic growth suffer from fatal conceptual and statistical flaws.
