Interesting Graphics of the Month: 1) 2022 Global Mining by Mineral and Weight, 2) The Longest U.S. Lateral Wells: Where Are They and Who’s Drilling Them? 3) The Modern History of Primary Energy Use by Source, and 4) Produced Water Treatment Flow Graphic

     The first graphic is a comparison by weight of global minerals mined in 2022. Iron ore is the undisputed king. Aluminum, chromium, copper, and manganese make up the next row. Those four make up less than 6% the weight of iron ore mined. Nearly 93% of all minerals mined by weight in 2022 were iron ore. This one comes from the USGS.

 

 

     Who is drilling the longest laterals in the U.S. and where are they being drilled? This one comes from Novi Labs and emphasizes that Exxon’s recent purchase of Pioneer puts them as the undisputed champ in owning long wells, defined here as lateral sections longer than 14,000 ft. It should be noted that this only includes wells drilled since June 2022 so earlier long laterals – there were some but not that many – were left out.

 

     Graphic number 3 shows global primary energy consumption by source from 1800 to now. We can see clearly that higher use of coal, oil, and gas ushered in our modern times of energy and wealth abundance. Those three still make up about 82% of global primary energy consumption despite very strong efforts to replace them with wind, solar, and electrification. In fact, these deployments have yet to cover energy demand growth so in that sense, replacement of fossil fuels has yet to even begin. One can say, however, that consumption of fossil fuels as a whole is nearing a peak. Natural gas consumption will likely grow modestly, oil consumption will likely grow just slightly and plateau, and coal consumption will likely drop in the future. This one is by Our World in Data.

 

     This one is by Allied Market Research. It was posted in the Environmental Impact Assessment group on LinkedIn. From the post: “Produced water is defined as the complex mixture of the organic and inorganic components mixed in the formation water, which exists in the reservoir along with the oil & gas and is produced with the extracted oil & gas. This water is slightly acidic in nature and needs to be treated before reinjection into the river streams. The water produced contains several impurities such as dissolved and dispersed oil components including Benzene, Toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and phenols.” This one was interactive with the arrows moving, but I was unable to post it that way. In any case, it shows the same thing.