Michael Skarke
Analyst · Northland Capital Markets.
Yes. Bobby, this is Mike again, a great question. And it's interesting because you're touching on another area where because of our recycling first and large-scale treatment capabilities, this is another area that benefits directly from that. So starting from treated produced water versus raw really gives you a leg up in this area. So we've, over the years and more recently have completed several pilots of increasing scale, everything from life film evaporation to multi-effect vacuum distillation, the membrane distillation, normal [ RO ] units. The fact is we touch a lot of different colors and types of water, and we always want to be able to bring the right technology, which, again, because we're multi-basin and we touch a lot of that water, we want to be ready. More recently, in conjunction with one of our premier operators, university in the [ Price Water Consortium ]. We did one of our larger scale projects where we were able to take treated produced water, treat it fully. And actually, we're land applying it as a part of a pilot with this university, and we are growing all sorts of native and other crop plants out nearby our treatment facility and also the water is going into a greenhouse for what we would consider to be one of the largest and more technically advanced plant growing tests. So we're proving up the water quality not only by just running the standard test, but we're also proving it by looking at biological growth and soil quality. So all of that is kind of our strategy, is our contribution to prove that this is a viable way to operate in the future. We're helping inform regulatory efforts with this data. And ultimately, I think the reason we're chasing this is push the industry, but also it's transformational. It's a critical long-term solution that we need to bring to life. And so our focus now is around the techno-economics of these different solutions. And ultimately, we need to make money on this. So we are going to look very carefully and build the systems that have the right capital return and investability. And really what we're trying to solve here ultimately is what we all know is a pinch point in industry, especially in the areas where we operate in New Mexico and around the Texas border, we have to find ways to dispose barrels. So I mean, really, what we're doing is defining the future of Select to be a pioneer in the space and to really continue to create for the next 5, 10, 20 years, the way that our system that we're investing in now can live on as that portfolio shifts to perhaps a more disposal-oriented solution. So I think what you'll see from us is over the next couple few years, we will begin to announce plans, and we will begin to brand commercial scale facilities online.