Drilling for oil as water runs short

Manicured lawns will give way to arid, drought-tolerant landscaping. Homeowners will retrofit bathrooms with low-flow toilets. Golf courses, cemeteries, and college campuses will turn off the sprinklers.

As the Golden State braces for a historic, four-year drought to continue into the summer, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is imposing unprecedented measures to fight a water shortage affecting 38 million Californians. “We’re in a new era,” Mr. Brown said. “The idea of your nice little green grass getting lots of water every day, that’s going to be a thing of the past.”

The world’s seventh largest economy – and the country’s No. 3 oil producer – is trying to change its approach to water. The question is whether the hydro-intensive energy industry will change with it.

Now more than ever, water plays a critical role in producing oil, the world’s largest source of primary energy. Advances in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have led to a North American energy boom that can use as much as 5 million gallons of water per well to unlock oil and gas deposits. Other techniques like water flooding and steam injection are commonplace methods for energy firms in California and elsewhere to maximize well production.

Progress has been made toward using water more efficiently, and industry representatives say they’re working to conserve even more. But in many parts of the globe, fuel demand is multiplying just as droughts and over-consumption make water a coveted, scarce resource. Nations must strike a delicate balance between energy demands and precious water resources.

Nowhere is that tension more acute than in places with the unfortunate paradox of being fossil-fuel rich but water-poor.

For its part, California uses markedly less water for oil production than other US states, experts say. Industry even recycles wastewater for repeated use in wells, or to water parched California farmland. The California energy industry’s water use is also modest compared to industries like agriculture, though exactly how much the oil and gas industry uses is unclear.

CS Monitor