The recent rise and fall of the commodities market has been giving many oil and gas exploration, and development companies, issues to deal with. Just when they felt everything was going their way, the bottom dropped out. Most energy companies were left scrambling, but some companies are lucky enough to be able to play both sides of the equation. Companies that can benefit on both sides of the pricing equation can offer cost savings when prices are down and higher volumes when prices are up. If they can be found, a nice even profit could be in the offing.
Ecosphere Technologies Inc., a water-engineering and services company, works to provide water reclamation and remediation services primarily to the natural gas exploration and development markets. The company has announced three mobile water reclamation projects in the last quarter, each with the intent of reducing well closing and associated environmental costs.
The company is having remarkable successes with its new mobile water services systems. Operating on-site, the company’s system allows well operators to better manage water resources without the added costs of trucking wastewater off-site for remediation. In a more than simple sense, the company’s process uses a patent-pending and proprietary method of combining ozone generation and ultrasound technology to separate heavy metals and hydrocarbons from drill-site wastewater. This system also offers the added benefits of decomposing dissolved ammonia and oxidizing bio-slimes and sheens.
Although the company is exposed to the natural gas commodities market, as it goes about selling its services to natural gas drilling companies it has been seeing excellent results. Well-drilling and energy companies readily understand the cost savings associated with keeping water resources on-site and are ready to redirect costs in the company’s direction. Although regional basins of natural gas stretch from Alaska to Oklahoma, the company has made a decision to focus its efforts on Texas and Oklahoma, where the Barnett and Haynesville natural gas deposits are located. In this regard, the company has struck up relationships with Devon Energy and Newfield Exploration Mid Continent (Woodford Shale) to demonstrate its processes.
The current pricing structure of natural gas is such that ecosphere Technologies can play both sides of it. On one side they can work the quickly increasing numbers of well sites when pricing is up, and focus on cost efficiencies when it is down. As natural gas is one solution to the country’s energy needs, the company’s process will likely become a standard, with profits flowing nicely. Generally speaking, it is only a matter of time.
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