Water Use
Water Use and Conservation Analysis
Syncrude's total import of fresh water from the Athabasca River increased to 36 million cubic metres in 2007 due to a substantial increase in crude oil production. However, successful efforts to use recycled water in our processes resulted in a more than 10 percent decrease in water intensity per barrel of production as compared to 2006. Syncrude's use of fresh water, at 2.03 cubic metres per cubic metre of production, is the most efficient in the oil sands industry. About 88 percent of all water used at Syncrude now comes from a continuous recycle loop.
Efforts to increase water efficiency continue through the work of our water management team and our tailings steering committee, which are focused on identifying and implementing further conservation and re-use opportunities.