Crude Drillers Shifting Water Use to Focus on Cost Savings

Oil drillers are trying to reduce water costs as they try to improve margins for hydraulically fractured wells in shale fields, Amanda Brock, chief executive officer for Water Standard, said at Bloomberg’s Oil & Gas Conference in Houston.

“At first, everyone was running around the country drilling to maintain their leases and they didn’t care what they paid for water,” Brock said to a crowd of about 150. “Now producers are trying to make sure they make money, and they can’t make money when they’re having to pay high water treatment costs.”