Water stewardship
We are always looking for ways to further reduce the amount of water we use in our operations and be more efficient with how we use it. We know our approach to water is important to the communities where we operate and to the environment. That’s why we’ve set ambitious targets for water use in our oil sands and thermal oil operations.
Our water stewardship targets and progress
Target
Reduce fresh water intensity
by 20%
in oil sands by year-end 20301.
by 20%
in oil sands by year-end 20301.
2019 oil sands
0.15
bbls water/BOE
(Barrels of water used per
barrel of oil equivalent)
2022
0.12
bbls water/BOE
2022 KEY INITIATIVES
Maintained
0.12
bbls water/BOE target
Target
Reduce fresh water intensity
by 20%
in thermal operations by year-end 20301.
by 20%
in thermal operations by year-end 20301.
2019 thermal operations
3.62
bbls water/BOE
2022
4.00
bbls water/BOE
(Learn more about our Thermal projects in Saskatchewan)
2022 KEY INITIATIVES
- Improved water reservoir monitoring.
- Began trials of process changes that could improve fresh water intensity (barrels of water used to produce a barrel of oil equivalent).
1 Start year 2019 for water intensity.
Water stewardship at a glance
- 85% of the water used to make steam at our oil sands projects is recycled produced water from our operations. Most of the additional water we use to make steam is saline groundwater that is unfit for consumption or agricultural use. Oil sands and thermal operations represent approximately 94% of Cenovus’s upstream fresh water use.
- 90% of Cenovus’s fresh water withdrawals occur in areas with low to low/medium baseline water stress, where water availability is good. These ratings are classified by the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas tool.