page_title: Produced water
section_title: Water management
hierarchical_section_title: Produced water / Water management
caption_attribution_description: This image is excerpted from a US GAO report: www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-156 Energy-Water Nexus: Information on the Quantity, Quality, and Management of Water Produced during Oil and Gas Production
context_page_description: Produced water is a term used in the oil industry to describe water that is produced as a byproduct during the extraction of oil and natural gas. Oil and gas reservoirs often have water as well as hydrocarbons, sometimes in a zone that lies under the hydrocarbons, and sometimes in the same zone with the oil and gas.
  Oil wells sometimes produce large volumes of water with the oil, while gas wells tend to produce water in smaller proportion.
  To achieve maximum oil recovery, waterflooding is often implemented, in which water is injected into the reservoirs to help force the oil to the production wells. The injected water eventually reaches the production wells, and so in the later stages of waterflooding, the produced water proportion of the total production increases.
context_section_description: Historically, produced water was disposed of in large evaporation ponds. However, this has become an increasingly unacceptable disposal method from both environmental and social perspectives.  Produced water is considered an industrial waste.
  The broad management options for re-use are direct injection, environmentally acceptable direct-use of untreated water, or treatment to a government-issued standard before disposal or supply to users. Treatment requirements vary throughout the world. In the United States these standards are issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for underground injection and discharges to surface waters. Although beneficial reuse for drinking water and agriculture have been researched, the industry has not adopted these measures due to cost, water availability, and social acceptance.
  Gravity separators, hydrocyclones, plate coalescers, dissolved gas flotation, and nut shell filters are some of the technologies used in treating wastes from produced water.
caption: Diagram of an injection well for disposal of produced water
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