Produced Water Quality Maps of Southeastern New Mexico

Click on the Online Map link to see Maps of Produced Water samples by formation, samples in cross section, and information on the chemical groups of the produced water samples.

Produced water samples serve as a proxy for groundwater samples, although there is some bias and uncertainty introduced, both because these are water samples from the oil and gas fields, and because of the uncertain sampling methods and analyses.

There are distinct chemical trends in the deep basin groundwaters, which are controlled by the flushing of meteoric water through high permeability formations. Piper diagrams show that produced water samples from nearly all formations show signs of halite dissolution.

Brine origins were determined using ion ratios, dividing samples into genetic classifications of connate brines, saline meteoric waters, and a mixture of the two.