Produced

With produced water from Texas oil and natural gas wells expected to top an estimated 15 billion-plus barrels a year by 2023 from 8.5 billion in 2017, the state’s operators have stepped up with recommendations to economically and sustainably manage the projected increases.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is expected to sign bipartisan legislation to reform regulations covering produced water from oil and gas operations, including in the booming Permian Basin, after lawmakers in the state House and Senate agreed to several amendments.

Gulfport Energy Corp.’s first operated wells in the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province (SCOOP) continued to perform over their first 30 days online, the company said Wednesday.

West Virginia University (WVU) and the University of Kansas (KU) have collaborated to learn more about produced water from oil and natural gas development, landing a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to advance best practices for handling the byproduct nationwide.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer said in a year-end update on Monday that his agency continues to grow stronger in response to the state’s shale gas development, hiring more oil and gas inspectors, creating new programs and strengthening existing regulations.

Ohio’s horizontal shale wells have produced more oil and natural gas through the first nine months of the year than all of Ohio’s wells produced in 2014, according to third quarter production data released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

Shale drillers continued to account for a larger share of Ohio’s oil and gas activity last year, with unconventional operators leading the way in the number of well completions, volumes produced and permits issued, according to an annual report from one of the state’s leading trade groups.

Unconventional natural gas production in Pennsylvania reached new heights in 2014, with operators reporting 2.08 Tcf of production in the last six months of the year, according to data released by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals said they have found an economical solution for removing salt from water produced when hydraulically fracturing (frack) oil and natural gas wells, according to a paper published this week in the journal Applied Energy.