Water Treatment During Gas and Oil Production is Hot Topic Hour on July 8,
2010
From exploration through production and refining, the gas and oil industry uses
a lot of water. Water is injected into the reservoir around producing oil wells
both on and off shore to increase the pressure in the reservoir to help free the
oil from the rock strata and sweep or displace oil from the reservoir and push
it towards the producing well. This will increase the amount of oil that can be
recovered from a reservoir and maintain the production rate of a reservoir over
a longer period of time. Water is also injected into shale formations containing
gas to fractionate the shale and free the gas. Hydro-fracture for a single well
can require up to 5 million gallons of water.
The industry uses sea water, fresh surface and ground water as well as produced
water. Produced water is the water that will flow back to the surface with the
gas or oil in producing wells or with cutting debris when drilling new wells as
well as other water after it is used in other processes. None of these sources
are without their difficulties and all must be treated before use. Produced
water poses especially difficult challenges because in addition to hydrocarbons
it can contain high levels of suspended solids and heavy metals. With fresh
water becoming increasingly scarce and with all of the regulations limiting
discharge of polluted water back to the surface water bodies, produced water may
be the best alternative. However, produced waters usually contain dissolved
salts and organic compounds, oil and other hydrocarbons, trace metals,
suspensions, and many other substances that are naturally present in the
reservoir or come from chemicals used in drilling or production operations. It
can be difficult and costly to clean produced water sufficiently to reuse it.
Sea water which is plentiful for off shore production or operations near the
coast also must be treated to remove particulates, algae, organic matter and
oxygen. Particulates and algae will plug the porous rock structure and
eventually decrease or shut off the flow of hydrocarbons. In addition to causing
corrosion in the well system, oxygen will promote bacterial growth in the
reservoir that can produce toxic hydrogen sulfide, a source of serious
production problems and also block the pores in the rock.
The following speakers will help us understand the current situation regarding
water use in oil and gas production; the potential rules and regulations that
will affect the availability, use and disposal of water and their timing; the
technologies available and under development for water treatment and reuse with
their applicability, capabilities, limitations and cost.
David Wensloff, President of Integrated Engineers, Inc. will discuss the
application of FloccinAgents™ in treating oily wastewater from drilling and
refining operations including Drilling Mud, Produce Water Oil Mixture, Oil/Water
Separation, Oil Field Drilling Equipment, Oily Sludge Dewatering, Refinery Tank
Washout Water and Refinery Wastewater. The advantages of using this process can
include a lower cost than conventional chemistry and it is non-hazardous, easy
to use, more forgiving of variation in pH and oil/dirt contaminant loading, has
a minimal addition to TDS/conductivity vs. traditional methods and provides
higher quality sludge.
ProSep, Inc. – (Speaker to be announced) - ProSep is dedicated to providing
process solutions to the oil and gas industry. ProSep, together with its
Norwegian operation ProPure, has developed the industry's most comprehensive
portfolio of solutions to treat produced water, including the CTour, a best
available technology that contributed to facilitate zero harmful discharge
legislation in the North Sea.
McIlvaine Staff
McIlvaine Staff will provide schematics and overviews of water treatment and
dissolved oxygen monitoring for various processes including produced water,
subsea drilling, shale gas, tar sands, and others.
To register for the "Hot Topic Hour" on July 8, 2010 at 10 a.m. CDT (Chicago
time), click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/FGDnetoppbroch/Default1.htm
Bob McIlvaine
President
847 784 0012 ext 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com