In Irion County, where Apache is probing for the Wolfcamp shale, the company is tapping the Santa Rosa formation for brackish water supplies that lie between 600 and 800 feet below ground in this part of the Permian, just below freshwater aquifers. The brackish water complements existing efforts to treat and recycle flowback and produced water. “We’re not using freshwater out here,” Lucian Wray, production manager for Apache’s South Permian region, said of the company’s Barnhart operating area. “We are recycling 100% of our produced water. We don’t dispose of any of it,” he told Reuters. The tactic is saving Apache money in trucking and disposal costs. Water costs alone can eat up around 10% of a well’s budget, according to IHS CERA. Apache says it costs about 29 cents per barrel to treat flowback water, an enormous discount to the roughly $2.50 per barrel it costs to dispose […]