Diverse Hardware And Flexible Chemistries Streamline Water Logistics By Danny Boyd Thanks to unconventional resource plays, the United States is producing more crude oil than any nation in history and more natural gas than any nation ever has before-and it is doing so at the same time! But it is not just hydrocarbons that are flowing to surface; there is also water. And a lot of it. In the Permian Basin alone, more than 20 million barrels of water are produced each and every day. In total, the United States is expected to produce far more than 50 million barrels a day of water next year. That is a tremendous volume of water to deal with on an around-the-clock basis, making water management as fundamental to bottom-line success as managing drilling, completion and production operations. Fortuitously enough, however, hydraulic fracturing operations consume a massive amount of water, giving oil and gas companies opportunities to repurpose flowed-back and co-produced waters to stimulate new reservoir rock. DECEMBER 2024 53