"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" Comes Home Again as Steve Robichaud Discusses Making Money from Oil Field Brines during 11/17/2020, PBS-SEPM Luncheon

RSVP by Friday the 13th (of November 2020) to save $5 for the in-person, "yes, I am eating lunch" version of the Permian Basin Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology's upcoming Technical Luncheon. For those unable to attend in person, there is a virtual option, as well.

Reservations can be made by emailing the number in your party to [email protected], by going online to www.pbs-sepm.org, or by leaving a voicemail at (432) 279-1360. Payment at the door can be made via check, cash, or credit card. Online options include credit card or PayPal. Prices for in-person dining are: $25 with an RSVP, $30 for Walk-ins, and $10 for students. The cost for "Bring Your Own Lunch" options and online attendees is $5. Those attending in person will start the luncheon at 11:30 AM Central Time. Online attendees can expect the live broadcast to begin with announcements at 11:55 AM.

Marketable Minerals in Permian Basin Waste Water

Stephen R. Robichaud, President of Echelon Exploration & Production Company, Inc.

   ABSTRACT: Every day, oil and gas operators in the Permian Basin recover tens of millions of barrels of unwanted saline waste water. During the early years of production, this waste water was recognized as a nuisance and, eventually, a hazard. Until the present day, the recovery of minerals from this waste water for commercial production has been largely untested. This presentation will outline the technical basis for the exploration for these minerals, and illuminate recent technological developments for economically recovering them.

    Previous generations of geologists recognized motion in connate waters of oil-bearing rocks in the Permian Basin. Carol Hill (1996) published a comprehensive study on the interdependence between fluid migration, rock chemistry, fluid chemistry and the dissolution / deposition of minerals. Later work by Art Saller and co-workers illuminated the origin of the fluids through examination of the water chemistry. 

Since the beginning, Permian Basin operations have unintentionally recovered minerals from this hyper-saline water, in the form of calcium / magnesium sulfate and calcium / magnesium carbonate scale, which often included barium as radioactive barite. Other known (measurable concentration) minerals in Permian Basin waters include boron, cadmium, cobalt, lithium, potassium, rubidium and strontium. Potentially recoverable metals, whose presence is unknown, are beryllium, copper, molybdenum, nickel, silver, thorium and uranium. Lithium mining in the past has been mostly hard-rock mining of spodumene and the evaporative precipitation of LiCl and Li2CO3 from brines. Recent advances in ion exchange technology have successfully recovered lithium from brines without the need for the broad footprint of an evaporative pan. In this way, the recovery of lithium from Permian Basin water is possible, and, under certain conditions, could become a significant secondary revenue stream. In 1976, the USGS identified oil field waste water as a probable source of recoverable lithium. Lithium (and other metal) exploration efforts will require the sampling of waters across a broad geographic area and spectrum of strata, to fully characterize the Permian Basin.

BIOGRAPHY: Steve Robichaud, PG, CPG, is Founder, President, and Geologist at Echelon Exploration & Production Company, Inc. Mr. Robichaud holds a BS in Geology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and an MS in Geology from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

    Mr. Robichaud began his oil industry experience in 1979 at Getty Oil Company in Midland, and then he worked for Coastal oil and Gas/Border Exploration Company. Since 1984, he has been a Consulting Geologist and Independent oil businessman, specializing in Permian Basin stratigraphy as applied to reservoir characterization, acquisition of producing properties, waste water disposal, and the relationship between regional geologic phenomena and the habitat of hydrocarbons in the Permian Basin. His current work focusses on the economic resource value of minerals which could be recovered from the hypersaline brines associated with the oil and gas production in the Permian Basin.