ConocoPhillips will spend $25 million over the next five to seven years on a global Water Sustainability Center that will examine ways of treating and using by-product water from oil production and refining operations, as well as other projects relating to industrial and municipal water sustainability. The center will be located in Qatar.
ConocoPhillips says that proposed uses for treated water could include crop irrigation, livestock watering, wildlife habitats, and industrial cooling, potentially leaving more fresh-water available for domestic use.
ConocoPhillips is a major participant in Qatar’s oil and gas industry as the key foreign partner in the Qatargas 3 project, which is expected to produce 7.8 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually beginning in 2009.
The company recently established an eight-year, $22.5 million research program at Iowa State University to develop technologies that produce biorenewable fuels.
