Responsible Water Management

Water is a critical resource and companies that advance their water management practices through innovation will have a future advantage. At Nexen, we launched a water management strategy in 2009 that provides a consistent, company-wide approach to the use, reuse, disposal and protection of water resources. This strategy reflects the following principles:

  • Comply with laws and regulation – We conduct regular inspections and audits to ensure compliance, proactively anticipating and responding to regulatory change. And as a signatory to the Global Compact, we apply Canadian standards to our use of water where government regulations may not be as stringent.
  • Manage responsibly – We minimize our impacts on the ecosystem through life cycle value assessment. We have established water management performance metrics aimed at optimizing water use and wastewater discharge across our operations. We also support research on efficient water use and reuse.
  • Engage with stakeholders – We participate and promote responsible watershed management in areas where we operate. This includes collaborating with governments and industry associations on watershed management policies and practices and participating in community-led initiatives relating to water use.
  • Communicate our performance – We’re committed to transparent and regular reporting to the public through established reporting mechanisms such as our annual Sustainability Report, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) stewardship reporting and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP).

Reducing Fresh Water Use

Nexen uses saline water instead of fresh water whenever possible. Saline water is fit for some industrial uses, but is unfit for municipal, domestic or irrigation purposes. Factors that influence what type of water we use include:

  • local regulations
  • volume of water required
  • energy and land footprint generated from treating low quality water and disposing of the waste products
  • ability of our process equipment to tolerate low quality water.