Produced Water: Asset or Waste?
The Atlantic Council has produced a white paper focusing on the water-related issues impacting the United States’ ability to unleash domestic energy resources.
In Produced Water: Asset or Waste, Blythe Lyons writes that sustainable and publicly acceptable water management practices are essential for both conventional and unconventional oil and gas production. This report, based on a workshop held at the Atlantic Council, promotes the idea that sustainable water strategies require that produced water be considered as an asset rather than as a waste.
“The report reaches the conclusion that produced water is currently seen as a pollutant and detriment to environmental security, but if managed appropriately, it could be recycled and utilized as an asset and new resource in the energy industry,” she writes.