In the high-stakes world of oil and gas production, an often-overlooked challenge is quietly threatening output, profits, and environmental safety. It’s a problem not only plaguing mature oil fields in Nigeria but also presenting growing concerns for operators in the United States.
We spoke with Mr. Abdul-Wahab Sa’ad, an energy expert and co-author of a groundbreaking study presented at the 2021 SPE Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition, to understand how smarter water management could offer critical relief to operators across the globe.
“Produced water is essentially the water that comes up from underground reservoirs during oil and gas production,” Mr. Sa’ad explained. “In older fields, whether in Africa or the U.S., this water becomes more dominant over time. If not properly managed, it can cripple production, inflate operational costs, and expose communities and the environment to unnecessary risks.”
The implications are massive. In Nigeria’s swampy Niger Delta, the SK field (name withheld for confidentiality), home to a 1.1 billion standard cubic feet (Bcf) gas plant faced mounting constraints. The field’s produced water was creating bottlenecks in the system, leading to deferred gas production and multimillion-dollar monthly costs just to barge the water away. “We were spending around $2 million per month just to haul water to export terminals. And even that wasn’t sustainable,” Sa’ad revealed.
But the problem isn’t limited to Nigeria. According to Sa’ad, “In the U.S., especially in states like Texas and New Mexico, the boom in shale oil has led to staggering volumes of produced water. Disposal wells are reaching capacity, and the seismic risks from underground injection are drawing increasing regulatory scrutiny.”
The solution lies in the proposal and execution of a reinjection strategy for the SK field, he said. “Instead of treating and transporting the water for disposal, we reinjected it safely into designated wells. Not only did this drastically reduce costs, but it also eliminated the environmental and safety risks tied to barging.”
Regulators supported the plan, seeing it as a win-win. “It was an example of what we call an integrated approach—looking at the technical, economic, and environmental aspects holistically,” Sa’ad said. “This is what mature fields in the U.S. and Africa need right now—not just more pipelines, but smarter infrastructure decisions.”
Mr. Sa’ad believed his approach could be replicated. “Whether it’s a brown field in the Niger Delta or a tight shale play in the Permian Basin, managing produced water should not be an afterthought. If done right, it can extend the life of a field, protect the environment, and keep operations profitable.”
As energy markets become more volatile and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards tighten globally, solutions like this offer more than just operational fixes—they provide a path toward sustainable and responsible energy production.
“At the end of the day,” Sa’ad concluded, “it’s not just about producing more oil or gas. It’s about producing smarter.”
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