Breakwater Energy Partners, LLC has constructed the largest produced water recycling facility in the Permian Basin. The 80-acre facility, known as the Big Spring Recycling System (BSRS), has a throughput capacity of over 250,000 barrels per day of recycled produced water. Located between Howard and Martin counties, BSRS brings several commercial operators together into a central nexus point and concurrently serves them with frac water blends of up to 100% recycled water. The facility also owns or has access to disposal capacity over 100,000 barrels per day.
“Operators tell us all the time that they want to recycle 100% of their wastewater. But they either lack the ability to aggregate enough recycled water when they need it, or they are unable to distribute their water to others when they have too much,” said Jason Jennaro, chief executive officer of Breakwater.
“We call our approach collaborative recycling. We’re saving our customers money by integrating their entire water supply chains into a single multi-customer connection point which includes last mile recycled water distribution to the wellsite. Collaborative recycling is the right thing for customers from an ESG perspective, but it’s also the right thing economically. Operators don’t want to pay twice for the same water: once for completions and a second time for disposal.”
BSRS also provides customers with significant operational flexibility. The facility integrates hundreds of thousands of barrels of produced water into a nexus point which then provides the option to recycle, store, or dispose of water. BSRS has recycled almost five million barrels of produced water in the 3rd quarter alone. It has 1.5 million barrels of commercially permitted treated water storage capacity and has generated almost 10 million data points within its proprietary cloud-based water balancing and data management system.
“What makes this facility different is not just its size and scale, but rather its business model. Breakwater has adopted a ‘recycle first’ water midstream model at a time when most of the industry’s water is still discarded into saltwater disposals,” said Jennaro.
“Breakwater has invested heavily in its last mile delivery capability, which affords us the flexibility to transfer high quantities of recycled water directly to customer’s wellsite. This distribution capability is a key part of how we are able to recycle such a high percentage of our customer’s wastewater.”
