Timeline: April 2024 – October 2024
A carbon capture and sequestration developer retained Bell Engineering® to run a seven-month saltwater transfer and injection testing program on a remote multi-thousand-acre South Texas ranch. The program supported a broader carbon sequestration monitoring test and required moving high-salinity produced water — 100,000+ PPM — between two 22,000 BBL lake tanks located more than three miles apart.
Bell supervised three parallel scopes under one project: construction supervision for the transfer infrastructure, daily operations support while fluid was moving, and round-the-clock site security at both tank locations. The transfer line itself was more than three miles of 8-inch layflat hose, and routing across a working ranch meant negotiating gates, livestock areas, drainage crossings, and wildlife considerations in coordination with the landowner.
Remote site logistics drove the rest of the design. Starlink satellite service was installed at both ends of the line to support live client coordination from anywhere in the country, and 24/7 video monitoring was set up so operators and the client could see tank levels, pump status, and hose condition in real time. Bell crews rotated on-site to keep continuous coverage across the seven-month window.
The operation ran without a single environmental incident. All produced water was contained, transferred, and accounted for on the metering side. The client closed out the program with the full test dataset in hand and a clean HSE record, and the ranch was returned to baseline condition with no residual impact to the landowner’s operations.
