众所周知且经过科学证明的事实是，油和水不会混合，但越来越清楚的是，它们可以共存。

在“池塘边：水资源最佳实践”小组会议上，专家们讨论了水市场如何随着页岩革命而发展，以及在德克萨斯州沃思堡举行的 Hart Energy SUPER DUG 会议上回收和再利用采出水的好处。

INOV8 Systems Ltd. 首席执行官杰拉德·库克 (Gerard Cooke) 在座谈会上对观众表示：“从全球范围来看，再利用是必经之路，无论是只是再利用回到回收流程，还是再利用并转移到其他地方” 。“我们每天都听说水是一种资源。它不是废物[产品]，而是一种资源，我们需要使用它。”

在水处理方面，采出水的再利用长期以来一直是争论的焦点，但四位小组成员一致认为，再利用应该在水中游行业广泛采用。

尽管回收采出水带来了积极的影响，但业内许多人仍然对水的重复利用持怀疑态度。XRI Holdings 副董事长兼首席可持续发展官约翰·杜兰德 (John Durand) 试图缓解这些担忧。他说，如今采出水的异常现象越来越少，操作员也越来越愿意使用符合规定的水。

杜兰德详细介绍了采出水的流程，他说，一旦水的保管权转移，“我们将收回同一桶水，我们将签订一份外卖协议合同，然后对其进行处理”水，回收利用，将其返还给众多运营商中的任何一个，然后继续这一过程。”

这个过程带来了巨大的规模经济和成本效率，同时也从质量的角度来看。杜兰德说，每一滴水都经过彻底分析，这可以防止其“超出规格”，并使水能够安全地重复利用。

Goodnight Midstream 联合创始人兼首席商务官罗伯特·鲁贝 (Robert Rubey) 表示，“这对整个行业来说是件好事，因为每一个重复使用的桶都不是取自淡水的。” “每次我可以提供一个桶供重复使用，我不需要支付化学费用，我不需要支付电费来移动它，我也不需要支付特许权使用费来将它通过用管道输送或将其放入孔中。”

尽管回收能够降低水管理公司的成本，鲁比仍然感叹说，处理产出水最便宜的方法是将其放回井下，这本身可能会导致大量问题，例如地震。

“如果你看看二叠纪的再利用，你会发现它很有效，因为它比其他方法更便宜。但在北达科他州，人们不会重复使用，因为它并不便宜。”鲁比在回答有关水处理进一步发展以及如何解决仍然存在的问题的问题时说道。“人们不会出于善意而[回收采出水]，除非它更便宜，或者除非他们从监管的角度被迫这样做。”

但小组成员针对鲁比提出的困境提出了一些解决方案。

在小组讨论的众多水处理创新中，人工智能 (AI) 是迄今为止最引人注目的。智能水解决方案总裁 Duane Germenis 表示，人工智能可以彻底改变中游水务行业。捕获各种井的数据并将其输入人工智能系统可以使软件了解不同水质的情况。人工智能将能够处理和适应出现的情况。

“我认为这是一个非常大的积极因素，因为很多事情都在瞬间发生变化，”杰梅尼斯说。“例如，在通过管道的段塞中，我们不知道它们何时到来，但如果我们能够检测到它并说，‘段塞来了’并理解这一点，那么数据就会消失相当准确，这将有利于所有工程支持。”

It is a well-known and scientifically proven fact that oil and water don’t mix, but increasingly it’s clear they can coexist.

During the At the Pond: Best Practices in Water panel, experts discussed how the water market has evolved alongside the shale revolution and the benefits of recycling and reusing produced water at Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

“Speaking globally, reuse is the way to go, whether it’s just reuse back into the process for recovery or whether it's reuse and diverting somewhere else,” Gerard Cooke, CEO of INOV8 Systems Ltd. told audience members during the panel. “We're hearing every day that water is a resource. It's not a waste [product], it’s a resource, and we need to use it.”

The reuse of produced water has long been a point of contention when it comes to water-handling, but the four panelists agreed that reuse is something that should be widely adopted within the water midstream industry.

Even with the positives that recycling produced water brings, many in the industry are still skeptical about reusing the water. John Durand, vice chairman and chief sustainability officer at XRI Holdings, attempted to allay those concerns. He said that nowadays there are fewer and fewer anomalies in produced water and operators are becoming more comfortable using water that fits within regulations.

Detailing the process that produced water goes through, Durand said that once custody of the water is transferred, “we'll take that same barrel of water back, we'll enter into a contract for [a] takeaway agreement to then treat that water, recycle it, give it back to any one of a number of operators and then keep that process going.”

This process leads to great economies of scale and cost efficiency, while also delivering from a quality standpoint. Durand said that each bit of water is analyzed thoroughly, which prevents it from “falling out of spec” and enables the water to be safely reused.

“It's great for the industry because every barrel that's reused is a barrel that's not taken from fresh” water sources, said Robert Rubey, Goodnight Midstream co-founder and chief commercial officer. “Every time that I can provide a barrel for reuse, I don't have to pay a chemical expense, I don't have to pay electricity to move it and I don't have to pay royalties either to put it through a pipe or put it down the hole.”

Despite recycling’s ability to cut water management companies’ costs, Rubey still lamented that the cheapest way to get rid of produced water is by putting it back downhole, which can result in a plethora of issues on its own, such as earthquakes.

“If you look at reuse in the Permian, it works because it's cheaper than the alternative. But people don't reuse in North Dakota because it's not cheaper,” Rubey said in response to a question about further evolutions in water-handling and how to combat issues that still remain. “People aren't going to [recycle produced water] out of the goodness of their hearts unless it's cheaper or unless they're forced to from a regulatory standpoint.”

But panelists offered some solutions to the dilemma Rubey posed.

Among the many innovations in water-handling that were discussed during the panel, artificial intelligence (AI) was by far the most notable. Duane Germenis, president of Intelligent Water Solutions, said AI could revolutionize the midstream water sector. Capturing data on various wells and feeding it into an AI system could enable the software to learn about different qualities of water. The AI would be able to handle and adapt to situations as they arise.

“I see that as a very big positive because so many things change in an instant,” Germenis said. “For instance, in the slugs that come through the pipelines, we don't know when they're coming but if we can detect it and say, ‘here comes the slug’ and understand that, then the data is going to be fairly accurate, which will benefit all the engineering support.”