Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company Saudi Aramco said that water reservoirs far from the Gulf previously required significant quantities of non-potable groundwater for injection to help produce oil. In 1979, the company created a Sea Water Injection Department (SWID) to replace most withdrawals from this source.

Since then, the department has been conducting annual projects to avoid consuming non-potable groundwater while reducing energy consumption and cutting GHG emissions.

Saudi Aramco founded SWID by commissioning the Qurayyah Sea Water Plant (QSWP) and an associated pipeline network. The company gradually replaced the requirement for non-potable groundwater with a series of expansions to the plant from 5.5 million barrels per day (MMBD) in 1978 to 7.0 MMBD in 1994 to 9.5 MMBD in 2005 and then to 14 MMBD in 2008. QSWP, however, consumes groundwater for utility and potable uses to avoid energy consumption for desalination as well as GHG emissions.

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