More oil and gas drillers turn to water recycling

Fuel Fix ^ | November 11, 2013 | Associated Press

[thackney]

When the rain stopped falling in Texas, the prairie grass yellowed, the soil cracked and oil drillers were confronted with a crisis. After years of easy access to cheap, plentiful water, the land they prized for its vast petroleum wealth was starting to dry up.

At first, the drought that took hold a few years ago seemed to threaten the economic boom that arose from hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method that uses huge amounts of high-pressure, chemical-laced water to free oil and natural gas trapped deep in underground rocks. But drillers have found a way to get by with much less water: They recycle it using systems that not long ago they may have eyed with suspicion.

“This was a dramatic change to the practices that the industry used for many, many years,” said Paul Schlosberg, co-founder and chief financial officer of Water Rescue Services, the company that runs recycling services for Fasken Oil and Ranch in West Texas, which is now 90 percent toward its goal of not using any freshwater for fracturing, or “fracking,” as it is commonly known.

Before the drought, “water was prevalent, it was cheap and it was taken for granted,” he added.

Just a few years ago, many drillers suspected water recyclers were trying to sell an unproven idea designed to drain money from multimillion-dollar businesses. Now the system is helping drillers use less freshwater and dispose of less wastewater. Recycling is rapidly becoming a popular and economic solution for a burgeoning industry.

The change is happening so swiftly that regulators are racing to keep up and in some cases taking steps to make it easier for drillers to recycle.

[thackney]

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[American Constitutionalist]

Was wondering if sea water could be used instead ?
Have they tried to use sea water ?
I would guess it would have to be desalinated.