Sustainable water management in the oil and gas industry: Harnessing the power of AI and data-driven solutions for efficient water use

Accenture’s Water Management Platform helps our clients in the oil and gas industry to optimize water use and reuse in their operations. The solution aims to assist engineers and operators in making better and more informed water-use decisions, with a focus on three main goals: reducing water sourcing, reducing water disposal, and increasing water reuse. Having the required data centralized in one place and creating a full digital visualization of the water value chain across operations is critical to optimize water use.

Introduction

The oil and gas industry is essential in meeting global energy demands. However, we must consider how our actions affect the environment and focus on sustainable development in this sector. One of the critical challenges in transitioning to sustainable practices in the oil and gas industry is effective water management. Water is a critical resource in oil and gas operational processes, and its inefficient use leads to environmental and operational challenges. A software solution to analyze the life cycle and use of water in this industry will save tens of thousands of barrels of water each year. It also returns water to the communities in which they operate, driving sustainable outcomes. In this blog, we discuss how Accenture’s Water Management Platform will help improve water management in the oil and gas industry by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven technologies.

The water challenge in the oil and gas industry

Water is an indispensable resource in the oil and gas industry, serving in various operational processes like drilling, hydraulic fracking, processing, and cooling. According to a recent study, the industry uses approximately three barrels of water per barrel of oil produced. Used water has its limitations and needs treatment to be reused in operational processes, and it currently is restricted outside of the oil and gas industry. With the growing global demand for energy, water use in oil and gas production will increase further. However, water scarcity has risen as an immediate crisis, making it imperative for the industry to optimize its water use. One of the major challenges that engineers and operators face is the lack of visibility of the water value chain through their operations. To help clients resolve this challenge, Accenture’s Water Management Platform provides a digital representation of the operations with nodes representing distinct decision points.

The need for a data-driven software solution

Traditional oil and gas industry water management methods are reactive, relying on manual data collection and analysis. This manual process leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for optimization.

With the Water Management Platform, data from multiple sources is consolidated in one place, providing operators with full visibility and access to water-related data in their operations. Accenture’s data-driven software solution monitoring, advanced analytics, and prescriptive capabilities help operators to make informed decisions to use less and recycle more water. The solution uses Amazon Web Services (AWS), which offers various services like serverless computing and tools for building linear and nonlinear optimization models tailored to the specific needs of oil and gas operations.

Solution Architecture

Figure 1. High-level solution architecture

1. AWS Lambda and Serverless Computing
AWS Lambda is a serverless, event-driven compute service that can run code for virtually any type of application or backend service. This feature is useful for oil and gas companies with limited resources or expertise in managing infrastructure.

Using AWS Lambda, Accenture built a scalable application that automatically adjusts to changes in water operation use and handles several kinds of services, like AWS Step Functions—a visual workflow service that helps developers use AWS services—and Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), which is a fully managed Pub/Sub service for A2A and A2P messaging. The Water Management Platform uses other serverless solutions as well, such as AWS AppSync, which creates serverless GraphQL and Pub/Sub APIs, and Amazon Elastic Compute Service (Amazon ECS), which is a fully managed container orchestration service. Serverless computing helps reduce operational costs because companies only pay for the computing resources they consume.

2. AWS Glue for data integration
AWS Glue is a serverless data integration service that makes it simpler to discover, prepare, move, and integrate data. AWS Glue merges data from different sources, like sensors, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and laboratory reports, creating a comprehensive overview of water use in the facility.

Using AWS Glue, Accenture’s data-driven solution has access to the most accurate and up-to-date information, leading to better-informed decision-making. AWS Glue jobs load and curate the data in raw, curated, and provisioned buckets in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)—an object storage service offering cutting-edge scalability, data availability, security, and performance—to provide the data required to execute simulations in the application. Some AWS Glue jobs are triggered by schedule, and others are triggered by actions with lambda executions.

3. Enhanced monitoring and analysis
The Water Management Platform provides daily water-related data for operators to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for optimization. It analyzes parameters like flow rates, water quality, temperature, water tank levels, and pressure across the operational process, providing valuable insights to improve water management.

The merged and curated data is visualized through interactive dashboards, helping operators to identify trends and anomalies that show inefficiencies or areas for improvement. Also, the solution provides a specific section designed to help identify issues in the sensors, statistically analyzing historic behavior and highlighting the outliers and wrong measurements based on business rules. These insights help to identify the road map to change.

4. Amazon SageMaker for ML and AI
Amazon SageMaker is a fully managed service for developers to build, train, and deploy machine learning (ML) models for any use case. Amazon SageMaker offers many built-in algorithms and pre-built models, including linear regression, which can optimize water management processes.

Adaptive learning and continuous improvement
AI can continuously learn from the data it processes, refining its models and algorithms. This adaptive learning capability improves the Water Management Platform’s predictive accuracy and decision-making. As a result, the system becomes increasingly influential in identifying inefficiencies and recommending optimization strategies, driving continuous improvement in water management.

Forecasting models
There are some variables required to get better predictions about how to optimize water and energy consumption in the future. Historical weather variables are used to predict evaporation rates and rainfall in a specified time frame, which helps operators to get a better and more realistic understanding of water consumption in the different processes of the plant. Amazon SageMaker helps to validate that these models are trained and retrained, refining its models and algorithms.

Accenture uses Amazon SageMaker to harness the power of ML without the need for extensive in-house expertise. Using Amazon SageMaker, Accenture’s solution processes vast amounts of data and identifies patterns that may be too complex for human analysts to discern.

The ML algorithms can optimize water management processes by identifying the most efficient water reuse and recycling methods. Using AI, the solution can simulate different water management scenarios, which can help operators to make data-driven decisions and devise strategies for sustainable water use.

5. Regulatory compliance
With increasing environmental regulations, the oil and gas industry must adhere to strict water management standards.

Accenture’s software solution helps maintain compliance by monitoring water quality parameters and verifying that wastewater discharge meets the required specifications.

The software can generate reports and audit trails, providing transparency and traceability for regulatory authorities. This feature facilitates compliance and shows the industry’s commitment to sustainable practices.

6. Cost Savings and Resource Optimization
Efficient water management can lead to significant cost savings. Accenture’s solution can help companies save on operational costs while contributing to environmental sustainability by reducing fresh-water intake, minimizing produced water disposal, and optimizing water recirculation processes. A data-driven approach helps operators to allocate water resources more efficiently and effectively.

Addressing Water Waste
The Water Management Platform can help operators minimize water waste and water capture from freshwater resources by increasing water reuse through the optimization scenarios’ insights and recommendations. Following these strategies will help reduce their water footprint, lower operational costs, and contribute to a more sustainable industry.

Conclusion

Sustainable water management is essential for the future of the oil and gas industry and for society. Embracing software solutions that use AI, ML, and data-driven technologies to analyze water use in operational processes is a critical step toward achieving sustainability in the oil and gas industry. These solutions help in reducing water disposal and discharge while improving operational efficiency, cost savings, and resource optimization. As technical engineers, we drive such technology adoption and strive to positively affect the environment and the industry’s long-term viability, paving the way for a sustainable future.