Managing Water-Related Risks

Water sourcing and produced water management are global challenges that require local solutions. Local water risks are characterized by the combination of social, regulatory, economic and environmental conditions such as water stress, which are unique to every basin or offshore marine area. Risks are influenced by the type of operation – whether we explore for or produce crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, natural gas liquids or liquefied natural gas – and whether we operate an unconventional reservoir or within a conventional field onshore or offshore. Our exploration and production activities can contribute to the resource use impact driver for nature. Water risks are managed at the BU level, enabling a tailored region-specific approach.

Our water sources include fresh, non-fresh, reused municipal wastewater and reused/recycled produced water used for drilling, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), hydraulic fracturing, steam generation for steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) oil sands production, natural gas and oil terminals, LNG production and domestic purposes.

Produced water from our onshore operations is treated and recycled to hydraulically fracture wells and generate SAGD steam, reused untreated for EOR, or disposed by well injection. Produced water from offshore operations is treated prior to discharge from offshore platforms in accordance with local regulations. We also manage waste water at our terminals for LNG production and domestic waste water for staff accommodations at remote assets.

Unconventional

In 2022, our unconventional assets included Eagle Ford, Delaware and Midland Basins in the Permian and Bakken in the U.S. and Montney in Canada.

Recycled produced water has been identified as the best option to source hydraulic fracturing operations for our Delaware, Midland and Montney assets. This recycling has both economic and environmental benefits as the use of recycled produced water reduces both the amount of water withdrawn from local sources and the amount of produced water injected for disposal.

Our Delaware and Midland unconventional assets are part of the Permian Basin in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. Water sourcing and produced water management are facilitated using centralized water gathering and distribution systems with strategically located recycling facilities. Water infrastructure is a key component of these gathering systems. Virtually none of our source water is transported via truck, and all of our recycled produced water used in Permian operations is transported via pipeline.

To minimize reliance on local fresh water sources and because some of our Permian assets are located in areas with high baseline water stress, we actively pursue opportunities to use recycled produced water to frack new wells. We have established partnerships with third-party midstream providers for our Midland and Delaware assets for services including water supply and delivery, pipeline design and operation, waste water disposal and produced water treatment. We added two additional produced water recycling facilities for assets acquired in 2022 bringing the total number of facilities treating produced water from our own natural gas and oil wells to 12.

In 2022, ConocoPhillips entered into an agreement with Aris Water Solutions and Chevron to develop and pilot technologies and processes to treat produced water for potential beneficial reuse opportunities. ExxonMobil joined the collaborative industry effort in 2023. Engineering, construction and execution of the testing protocols and pilot projects will be led by Aris, leveraging the combined technical expertise of members. Completion of pilot testing and the performance evaluation of certain pilot technologies are anticipated by the end of 2023, paving the way for risk assessments for treated produced water, which are important enablers for eventual beneficial reuse applications.

Our engineered storage pits for treated produced water are double-lined and have leak detectionPermian water callout systems, and storage pits and disposal facilities are also equipped with remote monitoring devices. In 2022, 44% of the water used for hydraulic fracturing of new wells in Delaware and 62% of water used in Midland was recycled produced water. Combined, 52% of the water used for hydraulic fracturing in the Permian was recycled produced water.

In addition to recycled produced water, we have been using reclaimed municipal waste water for our Midland assets since 2015. This reclaimed waste water is sourced from municipalities and other third parties and treated in the hydraulic fracture process.Montney water callout

In Canada's Montney development, we also manage water using a centralized water gathering and distribution system. Produced water from operating wells is treated for recycling, stored in engineered ponds and then used to complete the next well. As more wells are completed in future development phases, we will reduce the volume of fresh water withdrawn from the Halfway River and gradually increase the volume of treated produced water used for new wells. Our ultimate target is to recycle at least 80% of the produced water for fracking, reducing fresh water withdrawal and produced water disposal. We continue to exploit opportunities for sharing our treated produced water with other local operators, recycling an additional 30% of our total produced water recovered in 2022. We will look to use treated third-party produced water and are planning to increase our produced water storage capacity to reduce our fresh water use in 2023 and beyond. Learn more about our Montney water management.

In Texas’s Eagle Ford, we target groundwater sources that are not in close proximity to local municipal, domestic or agricultural users. In support of this goal, we progressed our deep water well project in Karnes County. Deeper wells are more likely to be brackish, helping us to boost the volume of non-fresh water used for operations. Source water for drilling and completions is transported using temporary, lay-flat pipelines from central storage ponds, rather than trucks. In 2022, we completed the installation of a pipeline-based produced water central gathering and disposal system for new facilities in Sugarloaf, located in Live Oak County. These initiatives have further reduced truck traffic on local roads. In 2022, about 66% of the water sourced for operations in the Eagle Ford was non-fresh water.

Eagle Ford water graphicFor our Bakken operations, water is predominately sourced from local surface and groundwater which is largely transported using temporary, lay-flat pipelines from third-party owned and operated central storage ponds and underground water distribution systems. Most of produced water is transferred to disposal wells using pipeline infrastructure. In 2022, about 12% of the water sourced for operations in the Bakken was non-fresh water.

Induced Seismicity

We have our own Global Induced Seismicity Guidelines to understand and mitigate potential seismicity related to fracking and produced water injection disposal wells. We evaluate third-party disposal wells by conducting seismic hazard risk assessments prior to selecting third-party disposal wells for use.

We utilize a range of real-time seismic monitoring networks, including the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology TexNet, United States Geological Survey and Nanometrics (a commercial monitoring entity), that enable us to make immediate evaluations and engage in mitigating actions if required. TexNet is a system of earthquake sensors placed in the ground at over 200 locations across the state of Texas. TexNet data is publicly available and widely used by industry, regulators and academic researchers.

In 2022, we supported research led by the University of Texas at Austin’s multi-disciplinary Center for Injection and Seismicity Research (CISR) to understand seismicity across Texas. We also supported seismological research at the Stanford University Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity (SCITS). 

To date, regulators in both New Mexico and Texas have defined multiple Seismic Response Areas (SRA) within which water disposal volumes are curtailed. We fully adhere to these actions and modify our disposal practices to remain in compliance. In addition, our protocols reflect variations in local regulatory frameworks.

Conventional

Our diverse operated conventional asset portfolio includes Alaska’s Kuparuk and Alpine fields and the Permian Basin in the U.S. The majority of our Permian Basin conventional wells were divested in late 2021 and early 2022.

Water management for our Alaska operations is unique, as most of our fresh water use is not directly for natural gas and oil production, but primarily to build seasonal ice roads and pads for development, exploration and overland resupply. The water is sourced locally from surface water bodies in accordance with regulatory permits and returned to the environment every spring as meltwater. Less than 1% of total water use is fresh water for drilling to produce natural gas and oil. For enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations, our Alaska assets rely on non-fresh water, specifically seawater, and reused produced water.

LNG Facilities

Water management priorities for our Australia Pacific Liquified Natural Gas (APLNG) facility focus on the quality of water discharged to municipal water treatment systems or directed to the receiving environment. This includes water used in the LNG process that is discharged to municipal systems and runoff from rain events that is discharged to surface water. Routine monitoring programs are in place to assess water quality prior to discharge to municipal systems and at each stormwater discharge point, as well as the receiving environment discharge mixing zone. Read more about our water management at APLNG. 

Oil Sands

In Canada, steam-assisted bitumen recovery at our Surmont oil sands operation is primarily supported by recycled produced water, supplemented by an array of low-quality non-saline1 and saline makeup groundwater supply wells. These impaired quality makeup water supplies replace water consumed within the bitumen recovery process and are not suitable for domestic or agricultural use with standard treatment technologies as well as located at depths that isolate them from surface water bodies and interactions with aquatic ecosystems.

Since 2020, Surmont has been piloting a combination of steam additive technologies (e.g., non-condensable gas co-injection to create a blanket of insulation within the steam chamber) and more aggressive targeting of low steam-oil ratio (SOR) wells within the field. This modified operating strategy has resulted in stable bitumen production at lower rates of steam injection and a conjunctive increase in produced water returns to the central processing plants. 

As a founding member of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), Surmont continued to beneficially contribute to the in-situ oil sands performance goal of reducing fresh water use intensity by 50% by 2022, measured from a 2012 benchmark. While finalized 2022 data is pending, COSIA member companies have collectively reduced their fresh water use intensity from 0.36 in 2012 to 0.17 in 2021, a reduction of approximately 53%.

Offshore

Water management priorities for our Norway offshore operations are treatment and quality of discharged produced water. Norway operations treat produced water prior to discharge from offshore platforms in accordance with national regulations. Fresh water for offshore operations is mostly used for domestic purposes, but also for well stimulation. Fresh water is used at the Teesside terminal, U.K., which receives natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids from Norway and U.K. offshore fields. Our Norway business unit is using non-fresh water (seawater) for reservoir pressure maintenance and drilling.   

Our Ekofisk operations have a long history of improving the quality of water discharged into the sea and our oil-in-water ratio has declined significantly and continues to outperform regulatory requirements. In the last decade, the focus has been on optimization to further reduce oil-in-water concentrations. In 2022, the concentration averaged 5.5 mg/L.

Efficient water treatment to reduce oil-in-water concentrations also reduces the level of other discharged components that may impact the marine environment. Potential impacts from produced water being discharged into the sea have been monitored and assessed for more than 20 years, including in-situ water column monitoring. Based on current knowledge, the environmental risk of discharging produced water is very low. In 2022, we submitted a report on in-situ water column monitoring in the Greater Ekofisk area to regulatory authorities prepared by a consortium of independent research institutes. The study verified the limited risk posed by treated produced water discharges.

Integrating Technology

We rely on finding innovative solutions through technology applications to reduce business risks and address local community concerns around water resources, treatment and management of produced water. Offshore, we treat produced water to remove dispersed oil prior to discharge, we disinfect seawater used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and we remove dissolved solids in water to avoid the buildup of scale. Onshore, we treat produced water or process water to remove certain organics, dissolved solids and dissolved gases like hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) to avoid the buildup of scale and to enable storage, recycling, discharge or disposal. Innovative water technologies can optimize processes, reduce costs, improve efficiency and reduce potential impact on the environment.

ConocoPhillips Global Water Sustainability Center

2022 was the 12th year for our Global Water Sustainability Center (GWSC) in Qatar. The center develops innovative solutions for water management related to natural gas and oil operations and programs with three main focus areas: providing specialized technical engineering and analytical support to our global operations and to Qatargas, conducting applied research to qualify advanced technologies for operations, and organizing outreach activities related to water sustainability. The research supports the development of beneficial reuse options of produced water in Lower 48 operations and at the same time minimizes deep well injection volumes. In addition, unique analytical methodology for advanced characterization of organics was developed to assess the level of pretreatment required to minimize membrane fouling at Qatargas waste water treatment plants. The GWSC manages our Water Solutions Technology Toolbox, an internal technology-sharing website capturing the latest water treatment experience from full-scale operations, field trials and bench tests. Read more about the GWSC.

In 2022, the GWSC team was honored for its conservation awareness program by Kahramaa - Tarsheed, the national program to regulate and create awareness for power and water consumption in the State of Qatar.

Bench Scale photoBench scale units for osmotically assisted reverse osmosis process. Bench Scale photoBench scale units for testing novel adsorbents.
Photo of Kahramaa / Tarsheed 10th year celebration.
Kahramaa - Tarsheed 10th year celebration.
 


1As defined by Alberta regulators.