Managing water-related risks

We manage water-related risks by considering the local, social, regulatory, economic and environmental conditions such as water stress, which are unique to every basin or offshore marine area. Water risks are managed at the business unit (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, liquified natural gas (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 assets

In 2023, our unconventional assets included Eagle Ford, Delaware and Midland Basins in the Permian, and Bakken in the U.S. and Montney in Canada. Unconventional production methods rely on horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing techniques.

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has both economic and environmental benefits as the use of recycled produced water reduces both the amount of water withdrawn from local sources and the amount of produced water injected for disposal.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. Our engineered storage pits for treated produced water are double-lined and have leak detection systems, and storage pits and disposal facilities are also equipped with remote monitoring devices.

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 hydraulically fracture 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. In 2023, >50% of the water used for hydraulic fracturing of new wells in the Permian Basin 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. We also began recycling domestic wastewater from some of our drilling rig camps in the Midland and Delaware Basins. The wastewater is used in drilling and cementing operations.

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. Pilot testing of produced water treatment technologies began in 2023 and continues through 2024, paving the way for risk assessments for treated produced water beneficial reuse across various applications.

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 containment ponds and then used to complete the next wells. With adequate treated water storage, as more wells are completed in future development phases, this recycled produced water will offset the fresh water demand from the Halfway River. Our expectation is to recycle at least 90% of the produced water for hydraulic fracturing by 2030, lowering both fresh water demand and produced water disposal. This is achieved through improved connectivity between two main assets, allowing an increase in produced water treatment and leveraging additional produced water storage. We also continue to explore opportunities for sharing our treated produced water with other local operators. 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 addition, we have recently targeted deep water wells 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 the Sugarloaf development area, located in Live Oak County. These initiatives have further reduced truck traffic on local roads. In 2023, about 58% of the water sourced for operations in the Eagle Ford was non-fresh water.

For our Bakken operations, water is predominately sourced from local surface and groundwater sources. Source water 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.

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 2023, we supported research led by the University of Texas at Austin’s multi-disciplinary Center for Injection and Seismicity Research to understand seismicity across Texas. We also supported seismological research at the Stanford University Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity. 

In response to high magnitude seismicity, regulators in both New Mexico and Texas have defined multiple Seismic Response Areas (SRA) within which individual water disposal well volumes are curtailed.  ConocoPhillips leads one of the three operator lead response groups (OLRG) in Texas. All three OLRGs have provided industry response plans to the Railroad Commission of Texas that will mitigate future potential seismicity within their individual SRAs.  

Conventional, oil sands, offshore and LNG

Our diverse asset portfolio includes Alaska’s Kuparuk, Western North Slope and the Willow project, Australia’s APLNG facility, Canada’s Surmont in situ oil sands operation and Norway’s offshore Greater Ekofisk area. Conventional production methods include enhanced oil recovery and oil sands steam-assisted gravity drainage.

Water management in 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. For enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations, our Alaska assets rely primarily on non-fresh water, specifically seawater, and reused produced water. In 2023, water for drilling mud was primarily sourced from treated camp wastewater for our Western North Slope operations.

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.

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 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.

Our Surmont team contributed to the Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) in-situ oil sands performance goal of reducing fresh water use intensity by 50%. Collectively, in-situ member companies reduced the fresh water use intensity from 0.36 in 2012 to 0.17 in 2022, a reduction of approximately 53%.

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 targeting 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. These additional produced water returns have offset makeup water requirements and contributed to improved water intensity.

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 2023, the concentration averaged 5.6 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.