Conserving water resources

Water is a finite resource – essential for the world’s ecosystems, human development, and life itself. As populations grow, so will demand for water.

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Understanding our water use, local water stress, and our potential impacts across our operations and at the local level is an important part of how we enhance our risk management processes.

Each community and ecosystem is different. Everywhere we work, we strive to deliver leading environmental performance. The standards and practices we apply around the world often go beyond local legal requirements.

Without water, we would not be able to operate our sites and meet society’s needs for energy and products. Water scarcity has the potential to pose business continuity and other risks. That’s why we need resilient water systems for our operations. We engage externally to gain insights and perspectives into water risks in the areas where we operate, and we consider these in our project designs and practices.

Image United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to this content.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to this content.

Our approach

Protect Tomorrow. Today. is our guiding principle, and our Environment Policy details our commitment to continuous efforts to improve environmental performance.

We strive to be a leader in safeguarding water resources. Our priority is the quality and supply of freshwater in the communities and environments where we work. We focus on prudently managing and monitoring the water we use.

Through our water stewardship efforts, we seek to:

  • Help protect the health of people and the environment.
  • Consider local water needs as we meet the needs of our operations.
  • Continuously improve our capabilities and performance.
  • Engage externally on water solutions.

Our Operations Integrity Management System and Environmental Aspects Guide help us understand and manage risks associated with water use at our facilities. Our overall water management process is consistent with Ipieca’s Water Management Framework.

Our work is also informed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Water use at ExxonMobil

We use water in many parts of our business, such as cooling machinery and making steam. To make this possible, we withdraw or purchase fresh, brackish, and saline water across our operations. This includes upstream exploration and production, downstream refining and chemicals production, and our growing Low Carbon Solutions business.

We focus our efforts on prudently managing and monitoring the water we use, including freshwater used in our operations, wastewater treatment and discharge, and recycling produced water (i.e., water that comes to the surface during oil and gas production) to reduce freshwater consumption in upstream processes. When sourcing water for operations, we consider local needs and available sources of supply.

Our Environmental Aspects Guide (EAG) informs our Environmental Aspects Assessment (EAA) process. Through this process, we identify the business activities, products, or services that may interact with the environment and evaluate their potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts and risks. Aspects such as water withdrawal and consumption are key considerations in our evaluation of water resources. Through the EAA, we screen water‑related aspects in a consistent manner and identify areas where additional evaluation may be required.

Further evaluation of a project’s water aspects is integrated into our Environmental, Socioeconomic, and Health Impact Assessment (ESHIA) process. This process examines how our work may affect water resources, communities, and ecological systems – including potential cumulative effects. The ESHIA also helps us incorporate measures to avoid, minimize, or mitigate water-related environmental, socioeconomic, and health risks throughout a project’s life cycle.

ExxonMobil works to responsibly manage wastewater and produced water from our operations, and we proactively look for opportunities to address any potential water quality issues. In our Project Environmental Standards (PES), our Water Management Standard sets out a broad range of requirements for major new projects, including those related to water sourcing and wastewater treatment. This standard establishes the planning and design basis for reducing impacts to surface water, groundwater, estuarine and marine water, not only from a water use or consumption viewpoint, but also with regard to discharge quality. We hold ourselves to this internal standard, which sets requirements even when a country has no water-use standards or less stringent standards than our own.

Assessing and managing water risk

We use tools such as the World Resources Institute’s AqueductTM tool (known as the “WRI tool”) and local assessments to evaluate water risks and scarcity near our operations.

We research and analyze our operations to continuously improve the processes and technologies we use in our efforts to reduce total water use and impacts to freshwater-dependent ecosystems.

Our strategies include:

  • Water conservation technologies.
  • Use of alternative sources.
  • Recycling of municipal and industrial wastewater.

Identifying and managing risks related to water availability, supply and quality is especially important in areas of water stress. Water stress is defined by measuring the ratio of water withdrawals to available renewable water supplies. We estimate that about 12% of the freshwater volume we withdraw is from water-stressed areas, based on analysis using the WRI tool. This represents a 7% decrease since our last report, primarily driven by ongoing portfolio optimization in the Permian Basin. By site, this represents about 23% of our locations.1

In 2022, we piloted our Water Aspect Assessment Tool to strengthen our focus on water risks and embedded the tool into our PES and EAA processes in 2024. This tool has helped us clarify our understanding of water availability (quantity and quality), accessibility, and dimensions of water-related risks beyond water stress.

Site-specific strategies

We consider many factors in our approach at a given process or site, including local water availability, quality, and environmental impact. At some water-stressed sites, this includes assessing actual costs and potential tradeoffs, such as reduced efficiency, higher energy use, or more concentrated waste streams.

In 2023, we began working with outside experts on an in-depth analysis of key operating sites in areas of potential future water stress. We are developing thorough water balances to gain further clarity on our water use at these sites and others. This work informs our efforts to develop water roadmaps that outline opportunities to reduce freshwater intake for select major operated facilities.2

In Singapore, for example, most of the water used by our affiliate’s manufacturing and refining complex is wastewater that is reclaimed and treated by the country’s national water agency. The facility’s “membrane biological reactor” enables additional reuse in on-site operations by using microorganisms to break down and separate waste.

Across our upstream portfolio, our wells are designed and constructed to promote integrity and help protect the water table. Layers of steel and cement form protective barriers between our subsurface pipes and underground aquifers to keep fluids contained. In addition, well completions using hydraulic fracturing are closely monitored to manage the pressures within the well, based on parameters set in our project designs.

spotlight

The Permian Basin and the Pioneer acquisition

Permian Basin unconventional operations.

In 2025, ~35% of our global oil and natural gas production came from the Permian Basin. As we work to responsibly develop our assets in the region, we strive to safeguard the availability and quality of its water sources.

In the Permian Basin, we aim to reduce withdrawal from freshwater and mitigate risks from water use in our operations.

To do this, we seek to:

  • Prioritize sourcing from recycled produced water to conserve resources of fresh and brackish water.
  • Diversify water disposal through innovative technology.
  • Maximize opportunities to reuse treated produced water, applying our capabilities in risk management, research, and technology.
  • Support local and regional water conservation efforts, such as those of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Pecos Watershed Conservation Initiative.

In 2024, we acquired Pioneer Natural Resources Company. At that time, we shared our expectation to use our combined operating capabilities and infrastructure, ExxonMobil expects to increase the amount of recycled produced water used in its Permian Basin hydraulic fracturing operations to more than 90% by 2030.3

The company achieved this in 2025, increasing our use of recycled produced water in our hydraulic fracturing operations to 91% – up from 64% in 2022. Reclaimed and brackish sources made up an additional 4%.4 All told, recycled produced, brackish, and reclaimed sources comprised 95% of water we used in our hydraulic fracturing operations in the region.

Spotlight

Huizhou Chemical Complex (HCC) starts up

Huizhou Chemical Complex.

First announced in 2018, the Huizhou Chemical Complex Project officially started up in July 2025 in Guangdong, China. The project was completed ahead of schedule, and under budget, with approximately 84 million recorded work hours – with no major safety incidents.

Building a facility of this size requires water, and construction of the site contributed to an increase in our reported water intensity for the Chemicals business. The complex is now operational, including systems and processes designed to treat and reuse as much as 60-70% of the wastewater in the onsite cooling towers.

Working to support water conservation through strategic collaborations

Universities, governments, and others in our industry help inform how we manage water risks today and study opportunities for the future. Through collaborations like these, our engineers and scientists assess new wastewater technologies, evaluate current infrastructure, and develop ways to improve our performance.

We collaborate with multiple third-party groups, including:

    Publications

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. ExxonMobil full-year 2025 performance data as of March 25, 2026 and World Resources Institute AqueductTM Water Risk Atlas accessed on March 25, 2026. For more information on the tool, visit www.aqueduct.wri.org. We categorize “water-stressed areas” as high, extremely high, or arid stress levels identified by this WRI tool and exclude sites that withdraw less than 500,000 barrels per year.
    2. Roadmaps aim to identify opportunities for selected operated sites, which are subject to change as a result of multiple factors, including the company’s planning process, supportive government policy, and/or technology developments.
    3. In our combined Permian Basin operations, recycled produced water includes water from ExxonMobil and other oil and gas operators in the region.
    4. Reclaimed water includes treated municipal and industrial wastewater.