Duane Devall, Vice President of Global Sales at Water Standard, shares his thoughts on a fundamental shift in the handling of produced water by the oil and gas industry. With the increased volumes of water required in frac operations, the strain on our water resources is real and the challenges of managing the water after production has operators at a crossroads.
Below is the video or read a quick synopsis of Duane’s interview.
Duane was asked to give his thoughts on the state of produced water treatment in the oil and gas industry. He begins by explaining that one of the biggest changes he has seen in his 20 years in the industry has been the perception of produced water by operators. Historically, produced water has been considered a waste stream; something that needs to be treated to the minimum requirements and disposed of as quickly and cheaply as possible. Now, water is viewed as a value stream and the focus is to treat this water for reuse rather than disposal. One of the main drivers of this change in perception is the massive volume of water required for use in the frac industry. One frac job can use up to 1MM barrels of water. All that water has to come from somewhere and then the operators are faced with the challenge of what to do with this now contaminated water that has been used. The volumes exceed what the operators are able to reuse in their operations and the disposal wells are becoming strained; therefore, the industry must find a way for this water to return to the natural water cycle. Duane feels that eventually, there will be no way around the concept that safe surface discharge is the future. He then touched on the main focus of Water Standard and its produced water subsidiary, Monarch Separators. Together, they have been successfully piloting and developing a cost effective and environmentally friendly treatment process called H2O Spectrum® platform. The system offers the flexibility for operators to treat their water for reuse and/or continue the treatment process to higher levels required for safe surface discharge. Since it is a modular system, it can be tailored to meet different project requirements as well as varying (and very challenging) inlet water quality. The success of H2O Spectrum® platform has been very exciting so if you would like to find out more about this innovative process, reach out directly to sales@waterstandard.com.