Oil and gas companies produce 3.8 billion barrels of wastewater per year in the arid Permian Basin. A state consortium is trying to figure out whether it can be reused.

Oil and gas extraction in the Permian Basin of arid West Texas is expected to produce some 588 million gallons of wastewater per day for the next 38 years, according to findings of a state-commissioned study group — three times as much as the oil it produces.

The announcement from the Texas Produced Water Consortium came two days before it was due to release its findings on potential recycling of oilfield wastewater.

“It’s a massive amount of water,” said Rusty Smith, the consortium’s executive director, addressing the Texas Groundwater Summit in San Antonio on Tuesday.