‘Really Smart Guys’ Push to Make Biggest Oilfield Even Bigger
- Water mixed with CO2 injection could boost Permian production
- Occidental Petroleum is testing the method on shale deposits
Pumpjacks operate on oil wells in the Permian Basin.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Standing at the center of the prolific Permian Basin, Scott Hodges explains how the future of the world’s largest oil field may very well depend on what he calls jokingly calls the "really smart guys."
Hodges, a 57-year-old manager with Occidental Petroleum Corp., runs a cluster of installations at the Hobbs oil field, where dozens of wells don’t pump a single barrel of oil but instead do the opposite: push stuff -- lots of it -- into the ground.