Throughout all our in situ operations, we have programs to reduce fresh water use for steaming by replacing it with brackish water. We have had significant success in reducing our water use at our Primrose and Wolf Lake thermal operations. The relative proportion of fresh water to brackish water use continues to decrease. This allows for increased bitumen production without increasing the use of fresh water. We have also initiated brackish water use at our Brintnell project in the Pelican Lake area, where we have pioneered polymer flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).
We maintain high recycling rates of produced water at all our facilities. We recycle more than 98% of the produced water at our thermal oil sands operations.
Our Horizon Oil Sands operation is designed to recycle over 80% of the water used in bitumen extraction so that it can be reused in our processes. Water withdrawals from the Athabasca River continue to be far less than our authorized withdrawal limit. We also keep water supply storage on site that allows us to maintain production in the event of low water flow periods in the Athabasca River, during which withdrawals from the river may be restricted.
Canadian Natural’s Septimus unconventional natural gas project in northeast British Columbia is also designed to conserve fresh water. We source brackish water from deep wells for hydraulic fracturing. Also, the produced water is further treated and reused to frac subsequent wells.
