Sustainable produced water supply chain design and optimisation: Trading-off the economic cost and environmental impact in Kuwait oil company

Produced water is a large waste product generated during oil production in the oil and gas industry. Worldwide, there is a lack of expertise and knowledge in the management of produced water, due to the costly treatment methods and large amounts involved. Kuwait is one of the world's leading oil-producing countries, with an estimated oil production capacity of three million barrels per day. Produce water management poses a severe threat to the sustainability of the Kuwait oil company in terms of cost control and environmental safety. The company's oil extraction activities involve different produce water management operations that incur high costs and result in the emission of large quantities of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, which profoundly affect the environment. This paper uses life cycle and economic assessment and presents a framework for trade-off analysis between the financial cost and environmental impact of produce water management operations. A multiobjective mixed-integer linear programming framework has been formulated for Kuwait oil company's produce water supply chain management with different operational and regulatory constraints. A model solution for sustainable operations over short, mid, and long-term reflecting the strategic policy at the Kuwait oil company is presented. The results shows that approximately 50% of total system costs are incurred by treatment operations, which are the most costly of all operations, and that the consumption of electricity accounts for approximately 90% of the environmental impact and is the most important environmental factor affecting the sustainability of the produce water supply chain. The research results and their expected outcomes concur with the company's most recent development policy plans related to produce water management.