More oil and gas disposal wells to address growing waste from Permian Basin boom
Adrian Hedden
More disposal wells for the oil and gas industry are coming to the Permian Basin, as a Houston-based company looked to expand its facilities in West Texas.
Milestone Environmental Services announced Wednesday that it acquired three leases and four injection permits in Howard County, Texas.
The purchase added 150,000 barrels of daily injection capacity to the company’s assets, allowing it to combine receiving points and injection wells into a “single, integrated production waste management network,” in the northern Midland Basin, read a Milestone news release.
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The move was intended to strengthen Milestone’s focus on addressing waste streams in the Permian, said Milestone Chief Executive Officer Gabriel Rio.
“Water disposal infrastructure is a valuable and natural complement to our existing business, which builds on our deep injection experience, superior operating record, and blue-chip customer base,” Rio said.
The company also broke ground on a slurry injection facility near Big Spring, Texas the release read, located about 8 miles north of the town on State Highway 87.
The facility was expected to open by the of 2019, and will accept waste streams from drilling, completion and production including oil- and water-based muds.
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It will also accept drilling fluids, flowback, tank bottoms, dirty water and produced water.
As with Milestone’s seven other slurry injection sites – located in the Permian, Eagle Ford and Haynesville shales – the Big Spring facility also provided washouts for trucks, and frac tanks.
The Big Spring site was third new facility announced by Milestone this year in the Permian.
It previously announced landfills in Orla, Texas and started construction in May.
“Breaking ground on our first landfill facility is a significant and exciting step for Milestone. Having the ability to handle all oilfield waste streams, much less in a single location, allows us to offer customers a comprehensive service with much greater efficiency,” Rio said.
“Milestone has committed to building the infrastructure necessary to enable our customers to operate in a sustainable way, and beginning construction on this landfill illustrates our promise to do just that.”
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The company also received a second landfill permit from the Texas Railroad Commission in April to build a facility about 35 miles south of Midland in Upton County.
Rio said Milestone’s focus on the Permian Basin region is driven by the ongoing boom in regional production, supporting waste streams from throughout southeast New Mexico and West Texas.
He said he hopes to have a facility as close as possible to all producers in the area.
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“The Permian Basin continues to out-produce the rest of the United States in drilling and oil and gas production,” Rio said. The increasing volume of activity demands efficient and effective resources to support the industry as it progresses.”
“Milestone’s ongoing strategic expansion will support growing customer needs for disposal, as well as our goal to have a facility within an hour of every customer in the region.”
Addressing oil and gas wastewater was the industry’s “number-one” priority, said Ryan Flynn, executive director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, and disposal wells are ideal when done correctly.
“Some of the challenges associated with disposal that we’ve seen in other jurisdictions have really been based on people not using best practices in terms of where they’re locating their disposal wells,” Flynn said.
“We clearly have the technology to ensure that we’re locating any type of disposal away from any faults or areas that would have the potential to induce any sort of seismic activity. We can continue to dispose water in these deep injection wells safely.”
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He said while injection disposal wells can be used safely, there is a growing interest in recycling and reusing the water.
That recycling or reused water could be put back into oil and gas processes or in other sectors such as agriculture or even drinking water, Flynn said.
“We’ll continue to see disposal for the near term. That’s the big opportunity though, is that rather than put this water, we can treat it to meet different standards,” he said.
“There’s this potential new source of water that can be used in other applications beyond the oil and gas industry.”
More oil and gas news:
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- Oil and gas industry continues to respond to climate, pollution concerns
- New Mexico cracking down on oil and gas methane waste, Heinrich and Udall call for action
- Data: Venting and flaring at 'all-time high' in Permian basin as oil and gas booms
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.