Tag: Climate

Categories
Mapping Oil

Water Crisis

Things Heat Up in the Permian Basin

While not the hottest region in the state, the Permian Basin experiences cyclical drought. Below is a graph from NOAA map tracking Texas drought conditions. 

There is not a direct, causal relationship between regional drought levels and total Texas oil production. After the early 1930s total allowable production rates were set by state officials who made decisions based upon known oil reserves and the global market. However, since most oil was extracted from rural areas, the wealth generated through oil production was even more important in drought years.

Below is a map tracking annual Texas oil production (in millions of barrels) starting in 1935 and ending in 2015. Data is from the Texas Railroad Commission. A comparison between the Texas Railroad Commission Data and a NOAA map tracking Texas drought conditions reveals some interesting historical context.

 

 

Population and Depletion

During the 1950s, the oil industry underwent massive expansion. That decade also coincides with extended drought in the Permian Basin. Oil expansion kept the region’s cattle ranchers and farmers from bankruptcy.

Also, as oil production increased during the drought-plagued 1950s, the industry put increased strain on the region’s limited potable groundwater. The late 1940s and early 1950s were marked by a regional water crisis only solved through the daming of the Colorado River and the creation of the Colorado River Municipal Water District to provide drinking water for regional settlements.

What does all this mean? 

 

It is clear that the future of Permian Basin oil extraction, like many of the oil producing regions around the world, depends upon an artificially abundant and finite water supply. 

Categories
Mapping Oil

Climate, Aridity, and the Limits of Oil Technology

The Sunken Sea

This map documents the locations of large Texas aquifers in conjunction with major oilfields of the 20th century.

West Texas is both the driest region in the state and also the center for on-shore oil extraction operations. Today, with hydraulic fracking technologies the basis of a new oil and gas boom, the industry is in the crosshairs of a heated debate about groundwater depletion and contamination. 

While the stakes are objectively higher in this contemporary battle (This is due to many factors: fracking uses much more water than previous drilling methods, water used in fracking is almost always permanently contaminated and unusable for any other purpose, stress on the region’s water supply has intensified as as the population has increased), water scarcity and the harsh climate have been central inhibitors to West Texas oil expansion for 100 years.  

Oil and Water

Oil extraction began in the eastern part of the state and moved westward. West Texas drilling began in the early 1920s, well before the discovery of major groundwater sources. Precipitation was intermittent at best. Drinking water was scarce – as was water for drilling and refining oil. However by the 1950s, the Permian Basin was the center of onshore oil operations.  

The region’s ancient history explains the presence of oil as well as the arid, inhospitable climate. Millions of years ago, the West Texas Permian Basin was once a shallow, inland sea. Over time, sealife died and drifted to the seabed. This dead plant and animal matter became the oil so prized by 20th century prospectors. This history also partially explains the region’s lack of vegetation and flat terrain. 

This map illustrates average rainfall patters across Texas during the second half of the twentieth century.

What does this mean?

Mapping the Permian Basin’s ancient (and not so ancient) history helps to contextualize contemporary debates about water use, oil extraction and regional sustainability. Lack of water is not a new problem for the region. While the tapping of the Ogallala and other aquifers provided temporary respite from perennial scarcity, the depletion of these resources suggest a return to pre-aquifer scarcity. How fast this happens depends on policymakers and requires hard conversations about the future of the oil industry in West Texas. 

Tools Used

  • QGIS 
  • Vector and raster data from NOAA, Mid Continent Oil and Gas Association, USGS, Texas State Historical Association, Texas General Land Office