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Blue water footprint of the oil sector in Ecuador

Abstract:

The water footprint is used as an indicator of the use of fresh water that verifies the direct and indirect use of water as a producer or consumer. The objective of the study is to evaluate the blue water footprint of the hydrocarbon sector of Ecuador through a literature review and the chain summation approach, to propose measures that help reduce the impact in this sector. The chain summation approach applied to the oil sector was used together with the production data of oil companies in 2019 and the blue water footprint indicator. Finally, a blue water footprint of the hydrocarbon sector of 3.68 million cubic meters was obtained in 2019. This result was compared with the agricultural blue water footprint, where the influence of both water footprints denotes the clear superiority of the agricultural sector with more than 99% in all comparisons ofits 4 years with respect to the hydrocarbon sector.