Every month, we publish the Thermal In Situ (TIS) Water Publication to track each company's water use and recycling in Alberta's in situ oil sands. This interactive publication allows users to filter, analyze, and download data, including
- maximum disposal limit and actual disposal,
- high-quality nonsaline water use intensity and make-up water use (%),
- produced water recycle ratio and produced water to steam ratio (to evaluate excess and recyclable produced water),
- saline water balance credit and water imbalance, and
- volumetric data (water, injection, bitumen production, etc.).
We publish this data to help companies meet the requirements of Directive 081: Water Disposal Limits and Reporting Requirements for Thermal In Situ Oil Sands Schemes.
Access the Publication
Thermal In Situ (TIS) Water Publication [Tableau]
Water Recycling Requirements
Under Directive 081, we require companies to recycle water by setting annual disposal limits for each project. These limits are based on the amount of high-quality nonsaline and alternative water companies use.
We set lower disposal limits for high-quality nonsaline compared to alternative water. This ensures that companies are reducing their impact on the environment by using less high-quality nonsaline water and more alternative water.
The graph below shows an example of a project's disposal limit and the amount of water that was disposed each month. For details on each project's disposal limits, see the full TIS Water Publication. [Tableau]
If a project exceeds its disposal limit, the AER has a number of enforcement tools to bring companies back into compliance with our requirements.
In some cases, companies can apply and receive our approval to exceed their disposal limit. For example, this may happen when they are using a new technology and need more time to find the right operational conditions to ensure they are recycling as much water as possible.
Find out how energy companies in Alberta use water by reading our annual Water Use Performance Report.
