Chemical Engineer

Blackbeard Operating, LLC is seeking a Chemical Engineer to lead and optimize chemical programs across Production, Completions, and Midstream operations. This role will manage and improve chemical spend—including production treatments, frac chemistry, and midstream applications. The position reports to the Water & Chemical Manager and works closely with Production, Completions, and Infrastructure teams. The engineer will also collaborate with vendors to understand chemical usage, performance, and cost drivers. The role is based in Midland, Texas.

Essential Functions

• Execute and optimize chemical programs for production, disposal, completions, and water treatment, including chemical selection, dosage adjustments, vendor coordination, and field performance evaluation.
• Support Production Engineering by diagnosing emulsion, scale, corrosion, paraffin, and flow‑assurance challenges; recommend chemical and operational solutions.
• Work with Midstream/Infrastructure on corrosion control, H2S mitigation, scale inhibition, and pipeline/facility chemical needs.
• Evaluate and recommend chemical strategies for hydraulic fracturing operations, with attention to produced‑water reuse, wet‑sand systems, and evolving chemistry requirements.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret operational data from water and chemical systems, including treatment efficiency, chemical usage, disposal performance, and associated costs; identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Consolidate all historical produced water, gas, and oil data across all assets into a centralized, user-friendly Power BI platform.
• Develop and maintain dashboards, reports, and visualizations (e.g., Power BI) to provide actionable insights on system performance, chemical programs, and operational costs for the Manager and cross‑functional teams.
• Recommend and implement process or chemical adjustments to improve system reliability, treatment effectiveness, and cost efficiency in alignment with company objectives.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives by identifying opportunities to enhance water management, treatment processes, and chemical program performance.
• Oversee chemical budget tracking, cost optimization, and performance surveillance for continuous treatments, batch programs, emulsion breakers, frac chemistry, and midstream chemicals.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with chemical vendors to ensure transparency in product usage, treatment rates, pricing, and field performance.
• Provide chemical support to field operations, including routine site visits to batteries, SWDs, and frac locations to verify applications and treatment effectiveness.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant discipline required.
• Strong understanding of production chemistry, completions chemistry, and midstream chemical applications (corrosion, scale, H2S, drag reduction, etc.).
• Ability to identify cost‑saving opportunities by integrating chemical performance data, field observations, and vendor inputs.
• Familiarity with hydraulic‑fracturing chemistry and compatibility concerns related to produced water and wet sand.
• Comfortable working in the field to verify treatment performance and build rapport with Lease Operators and site personnel.
• Strong economic and analytical skills to support decision‑making and justify chemical‑program changes.
• Self‑motivated, detail‑oriented, and capable of managing a large, cross‑functional workload.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to work seamlessly across Production, Completions, Infrastructure, Land, and Accounting.
• Proficiency with data‑analysis tools including Excel, PowerPoint, Power BI.
• Strong vendor‑management capability, including negotiation, technical evaluation, and long‑term partnership development.