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This review provides insight into the implementation of membrane technology in the petroleum industry for treating produced water that is generated from conventional oilfields in upstream and downstream processes. The ever-evolving and increasingly stringent regulatory standards for discharging produced water pose colossal environmental and economic implications because the bulk of this produced water is disposed into the environment. Thus, a review of the implementation of membrane technology for produced water treatment could contribute to the knowledge required for the increased introduction of scaled-up membrane technology in the petroleum industry. This review encompasses the capabilities and performance optimization possibilities of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis membranes. The level of applications that these membrane technologies might attain within the …