Blackstone Energy has partnered with a Permian Basin water management platform

THE WOODLANDS, Texas & New York -- Blackstone has announced that funds managed by Blackstone Energy Partners L.P. have formed Waterfield Midstream, a full-cycle provider of water management services, including water gathering, treatment, recycling and disposal, to provide solutions to producers in the Permian Basin. Waterfield is Blackstone’s water midstream platform in the Permian Basin and has a $500 million equity commitment to pursue greenfield development and acquisitions of water-related infrastructure, helping producers minimize the environmental impact and operating cost of oil and gas production.

Waterfield is led by Co-Chief Executive Officers Scott Mitchell and Mark Cahill, who previously built and led Anadarko’s and Western Gas’s Permian Basin commercial water infrastructure platform. Since partnering with Blackstone last summer, Waterfield has put together a highly skilled team that brings together upstream and midstream technical expertise with a deep understanding of the subsurface and operating characteristics of the Permian Basin. This expertise positions Waterfield to provide reliable, turn-key services for its customers.

Recently, Waterfield signed a 15-year contract with Guidon Energy to construct a new system to handle Guidon’s water gathering and disposal needs across its ~40,000 acre position in Martin County, Texas. In Martin County, Waterfield is targeting deeper disposal zones, as opposed to shallow disposal zones, to provide long-term flow assurance and to support optimal drilling conditions for its upstream customers. Additionally, Waterfield has entered into an agreement with EagleClaw Midstream to operate EagleClaw’s water assets in Reeves County, Texas. These assets consist of 58 mi of gathering lines and 390,000 bbl/day of permitted water disposal capacity.

“We are excited to have partnered with Blackstone,” said Co-CEO Scott Mitchell. “Blackstone shares our vision of developing a long-term and sustainable water business focused on flow assurance in the Permian Basin. We are confident that Waterfield can deliver high quality and cost-effective outcomes for our customers. The opportunity to build Waterfield with the commitment and support of Blackstone’s upstream expertise, capital, industry relationships and successful track record greatly enhances our ability to execute this vision.”

“In addition, we are excited to work with Guidon and EagleClaw,” said Co-CEO Mark Cahill. “They are both exceptional companies with technical expertise, operating excellence, financial discipline and integrity. We believe Waterfield Midstream brings those same qualities to the water management market in the Permian Basin.”

Angelo Acconcia, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone who oversees its upstream investments, said, “Our partnership with Scott and Mark is illustrative of our strategy of enabling and building best-in-class management teams with proven technical and operational expertise. We are excited to work with them to build the leading water management platform in the basin and to provide unique, long-term water solutions of scale to upstream companies in the Permian.”

Erik Belz, Principal at Blackstone, added, “We believe that Waterfield addresses a critical need of producers in the Permian Basin both in terms of infrastructure and quality of service. Waterfield’s subsurface capabilities and engineering track record set it apart from other offerings in the market.”