The largest US oil field is made of toxic water leak, warns Texas

The Texas supervisory authorities warn that fracking wastewater in the largest US oil pool leads to a “widespread” increase in the underground pressure – a development that hinder the risk of hindering crude oil production and damage the environment.

Slate oil bores in the Perm basin produce millions of gallons chemically blocked water, which then pump drills into the ground. Land owners and activists have been saying for years that this process causes toxic leaks. Now the state's strong oil and gas regulatory authority, the Texas railway commission, recognizes the outsourcing of the problem and imposes restrictions that could increase raw production costs.

Chevron Corp., BP PLC and Coterra Energy Inc. as well as Waterbridge Operating LLC and NGL Energy Partners are among the companies that have received information about the pressure problem of the Railroad Commission of Texas after a Bloomberg News Review. The RRC sent the news to companies that apply for new wastewater disposal fountains.

The producers began about five years ago that more water was injected into flat rock formations after it had pumped deep under the surface to trigger earthquakes. But the volumes are now so large that the dirty water breeds against fountains and the floor swells and breeds, which threatens to contaminate the drinking processes for humans and the cattle.

Restrictions for both depth and in flat injection zones could mean that the manufacturers continue to pump their wastewater, increase recycling or paid to clean it. All of these options would increase the costs in Permian, which is about half of the entire raw production of America. It would be the latest blow for US producers who are already dealing with low oil prices and a shrinking stock of top drilling sites, although President Donald Trump's promise to unleash us “energy hominance” to unleash fossil fuels.

The RRC has updated its standard language in the letters to the producers in an allusion to the severity of the problem. It now means that the establishment of waste water in the Delaware Mountain Group in the productive western part of the Perms has led to a widespread increase in the reservoir pressure, which may not be in the public interest and may damage mineral and fresh water resources in Texas. “

“Drilling risks, hydrocarbon production losses, uncontrolled currents, floor surface deformations and seismic activity have been observed,” says the Commission.

From next month, the RRC will set borders for the water pressure level due to the “physical restrictions of the disposal reservoir”. The operators must also evaluate the old or non -planted oil drilling within half a mile from the disposal site, which rated twice as high as the previous distance.

Spokesman for BP and Coterra refused to comment. Representatives of BP, Waterbridge and NGL did not immediately respond to inquiries about comments.

The RRC employees have been investigating problems in connection with wastewater disposal for several years, spokesman Bryce Dubee said in an e -mail.

“Let it have no doubt that our work and analysis to protect the residents and the environment in West texas for years and have been continued,” said Dubee. The Commission carried out a two -hour webinar on Thursday to explain its new guidelines for the permission of the salt water disposal fountain in the Perm.

Chevron has taken a “leading position” to “manage responsibility to manage the underground injection of produced water in the Permian” and to support the new rules of the RRC, spokeswoman Paula Beasley said in a statement. The company uses recycled and brackish water for all its fracking and works on opportunities to treat produced liquids to reuse, she said.

BP signed a 10-year contract with Waterbridge in January to transport wastewater from its core production area in Reeves County, Texas. “It is important to develop long-term sustainable water solutions in the Perm basin,” said Kyle Kontz, Chief Executive Officer of the BP Shale Business, at that time.

Permian Basin's oil production has risen to around 6.7 million barrels of oil every day in the past ten years – more than the production from Iraq and Kuwait. However, it creates three to five barrels of water for each barrel of crude oil, which contain so much salt and toxic materials that pump it underground again, the only inexpensive disposal method.

The flat disposal zones between oil -rich slate layers and the surface consist of porous rocks that can absorb water. But the 100-year history of crude oil production in Perm means that they are perforated with thousands of holes, some up to a mile deep. Due to the higher water pressure, the liquids now break in oil drilling areas and old wells, which were either left or were poorly cemented decades ago.

The closer restrictions of the regulatory authority come only a few weeks after Coterra was forced to stop oil production in Culberson County, Texas after waste fluids entered their wells. Managers said the problem was localized and could be remedied by strengthening the protective housing around the fountains.

Coterra fixed the fountains concerned, but did not give an expected final date. The company does not expect the problem to affect its long -term reserves.

“We thought we were calibrated,” said Blake Sirgo, Senior Vice President for Coterra's operations, on May 6th on a call for analysts. “Sometimes the oil field is still surprising.”

A person who is not surprised is Sarah Stogner, the district prosecutor for three counties in West texas in the Perm basin. She has been warning of rising pressure under the surface since 2021 when a landowner noticed that the oil and gas from old fountains seeped on her ownership, which were idle for decades.

StoGner, then the landowner lawyer, published the case on social media and called her “Zombie Wells”. In the next few years, several other fountains in the area have blown out in the area, with some more than 100 feet being ejected more than 100 feet in the air.

“These were old fields that suffered pressure under pressure for decades,” she said. “Suddenly we saw pressure where he shouldn't be. It was also clear at the time that there was a field problem.”

The RRC largely ignored its appeals for a thorough examination, she said. The chosen commissioners, whose campaigns are largely financed by the oil and gas industry, primarily stopped the problem as a constipation problem and claimed that old and abandoned fountains were not properly closed or not at all.

But it now becomes clearer that the underlying problem is too much wastewater injection.

A blowout near Imperial, Texas, was poisonous water high in the air for two weeks and had to be felled in 2022. Researchers from the Southern Methodist University later found the ground around the eruption location, which has increased steadily for three years and finally rose by 40 centimeters (16 inches) before they were opened. The wastewater injection is “strongly correlate” with the floor movement several kilometers away, they said in a paper published in July 2024.

Skygeo, an analysis company that uses radar to pursue soil movements, achieved a similar conclusion.

“The injection of salt water causes this unnaturally high pressure, and then it will find weaknesses to get out,” said CEO Pieter Bas Leezenberg.

The RRC stated that the new approval requirements will “ensure that injected liquids are limited to the disposal formations to protect the soil and enable fresh water”.

For StoGner, the measures are an attitude that toxic water leaks are a serious problem for the controller and for the Perm basin.

“You just ignored us completely,” she said. “But now you can't deny that it happens.”

Photo: The water produced bubbles a geyser in Toyah, Texas from the ground. Photographer: Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspap/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images

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