Water Resources Management
Importance and Mission
Water management is important for PTTEP as it aligns with the Company's commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable practices across its operations. PTTEP recognizes that effective management of water resources is essential for ensuring the responsible use of this vital natural asset while upholding regulatory compliance and building trust among stakeholders. By prioritizing the sustainable management of water resources, PTTEP not only safeguards the environment but also supports its long-term business objectives and corporate values. PTTEP also emphasizes the importance and linkage of nature (land, sea, freshwater, forest, and atmosphere), business and society in alignment with the world’s most relevant frameworks and standards, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard.
Goals
- 1 Avoid operating in areas at risk from water scarcity and ensure that there is no impact on the community and water users
- 2 Zero produced water discharge to the environment
Management Approach
To achieve the water management goals, PTTEP focuses on management of both water resources and reuse/recycle of water. PTTEP commits to avoid operations in the areas at risk from water scarcity, develop the water management program for the operations in the water stress area, including seek the opportunities to reduce or replace freshwater withdrawal as much as possible. Moreover, the mitigation of the impact from large volume of produced water is priority by setting the target of 100% of produced water injection for Thailand operations where the facility is safely allowed. Otherwise, the compliance with the regulation in the country where the operating assets located is adhered to.
For sustainable water management, PTTEP water management framework is defined as a risk-based and continuous improvement process, which comprises the implementation of integrated water management approach through the recognition of water use and return and water-related risk assessment, development of water efficiency opportunities by using water efficiency hierarchy (adopted from IPIECA), monitoring and reporting of its performance and the best practices against the goals, and establishing governance and review process, as well as engaging with stakeholder to support the efficient water management for both the Company and communities.
Water Risk Management
Water is crucial resource to petroleum exploration and production activities. PTTEP thus conducts an assessment on risks related to water resources management in all operating areas, supply chain, product use to prevent the issues on water quality and water scarcity in neighboring communities. The Company also improves the water efficiency and water conservation and emphasize on the importance of leakage detection programs, maintenance, and the reduction of water losses from unnecessary activities.
PTTEP developed the water risk assessment tool in 2013 and keeps it up to date in accordance with the updated internationally recognized tools, for evaluating and managing the water related risk at all operating sites. The assessment was aimed at extending the risks to cover those related to water scarcity, increase in water fees, laws and regulations related to water consumption, as well as possible conflicts with stakeholders. The assessment utilizes the Company projects’ data and location-based data from internationally recognized tools such as WRI Aqueduct, and WWF Water Risk Filter. Notably, the assessment focused on present and future risks (for 2023, 2030 and 2050, respectively), and the results were used to furtherly define water management targets and the efficiency opportunities.
The assessment of water-stressed areas by the WRI Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas reveals that three operations are located in water stress areas. These assets include S1 & L22/43, PTTEP1, and Sinphuhorm (SPH) assets in Thailand. Additionally, the WWF Risk Filter Suite has identified risks based on the Water Risk Filter and Biodiversity Risk Filter. The results show that SPH faces water scarcity risks, but the operation itself is not highly dependent on water resources. Both tools indicate vulnerability to natural hazards and biodiversity pressures, with SPH additionally at risk from floods and land use changes. In addition, the results show no significant changes in water availability to operating assets and petroleum development support since 2020 and low risks of stakeholder conflicts over water use on PTTEP assets through 2030. While PTTEP assets in Thailand, Myanmar, and Malaysia may face increased regulatory control, but the assessments predict that these changes will pose a non-material threat to operations through 2030.
The overall results showed that the Company water related risks are ranked at low-medium, considering insignificant impacts in any scenario at all assessed operations.
Water Management Program
As the results of water use and return and water related-risk assessment, PTTEP implements the water management programs, according to water efficiency hierarchy, to consider mitigation the impact to the Company and communities freshwater in terms of its availability, accessibility and quality for example; reusing such as produced water as non-fresh water to improve oil recovery capacity leading to the reduction of consumption of limited freshwater, preserving the freshwater resource for the community’s consumption by initiating water resources conservation and water bank projects with local communities in the water stress area and maintains the operations continually, control wildfire and monsoon tree planting to protect water catchment areas, and installing the basic utility equipment and structures of utility water distribution and storage system for ensuring the continuous water supply to the communities.
For the effective produced water management, PTTEP's projects located in Thailand have achieved zero produced water discharge since 2010, through injection of produced water back into depleted petroleum reservoirs. Though produced water volume tends to increase in line with production activities and reservoir age, PTTEP has effectively maintained the water injection capacity. Sinphuhorm Project in Thailand was the exception as it resorts to another technique, as described in its EIA, which also results in zero discharge. While PTTEP’s overseas projects have fully complied with the country regulations, by treating and discharging the treated water with the characteristics are better than the criteria. Moreover, oversea project is advancing the produced water management beyond the regulation by studying the feasibility for produced water injection.
By employing advanced treatment technologies, PTTEP has improved the quality of produced water (water produced along with petroleum production) to meet the standards for a broader range of uses, thereby significantly reducing our dependency on freshwater resources. This initiative will include the exploration of opportunities for using treated produced water in operation, where permissible.
Furthermore, PTTEP equips our employees with essential training to enhance water conservation across all operations. Employees share lesson learns to implement practical solutions within their operations, such as optimizing water use in drilling processes and improving water recycling systems. This training also incorporates case studies demonstrating successful produced water management practices, equipping our team with the skills and knowledge to actively contribute to our water sustainability initiatives.
The Company continuously monitors and records the water-related performance, both quantitative and qualitative data. Moreover, PTTEP demonstrates its commitment to transparency and trustworthiness by disclosing water performance in annual reports and sustainability reports. Comprehensive water-related performance has also been disclosed and reported to CDP since 2017 and PTTEP has been ranked at "Leadership Level" in 2017 and has ranked at "Management Level" since 2018 as a reflection of the Company's environment stewardship compared to its peers.