MIDLAND, Texas —
Water and oil don’t mix, but they are what bring people such as leaders, researchers and regulators together for an annual event.
The 2024 Permian Basin Water in Energy Conference is hosted by the UT Permian Basin’s Shepperd Leadership Institute. This year, the two-day event takes place at the Bush Convention Center in Midland, beginning on Wednesday, March 6 and ending on Thursday, March 7.
Richard Brantley is the chairman of the Permian Basin Water and Energy Conference. According to Brantley, over time the industry initially learned how to treat produced water.
“Now, we’re on a quest to understand better the constituency of that produced water and how we might be able to clean it up for greater uses,” Brantley said. “There’s lots of minerals and elements in that water that can be extracted for value and that’s part of the whole equation.”
According to Brantley, agriculture is also a prospective use for that water only for non-food crops, such as cotton. Some experts do not suggest that water to be repurposed for consumption reasons.
“Our primary ambition is to keep this water in the water cycle and to just keep it in the atmosphere so that we don’t put it away underground for eons to come as we will be better off if we have that water in the hydrologic cycle,” said Brantley.
The proceeds gathered during the annual conference go towards scholarships and leadership development trainings for UT Permian Basin students- many of which will be the future of the energy workforce.
“This is a program that has really set us apart in the Permian Basin,” said Brantley.