(35a) Advances in Produced Water Treatment

Today’s Oil and Gas Industry is being confronted with having to manage production with increasing amounts of produced water from production wells.  In fact, many engineers throughout the industry believe that good produced water management is the single most important aspect to extending the life of a producing reservoir.

With the increasing regulations and changing requirements found throughout the industry, the need for new techniques and better technologies is even more important.  This manuscript will help identify some of the latest techniques and most advanced technologies that are changing the produced water treatment industry throughout the world.  The presentation will highlight the significant use of hydrocyclones, compact flotation units and polymers that are making coalescence easier and more reliable.

This manuscript will review the latest produced water treatment technologies used throughout the topside offshore production industry.  It will highlight the latest technologies used in the produced water treatment industry today and discuss their potential use in the subsea environment.  The paper will illustrate those discussed concepts to perform subsea produced water treatment and will look at the many challenges and gaps towards making this technology viable and effective for subsea.

The paper will provide the newest advances in produced water treatment and discuss the gaps and challenges to applying their use at the seabed in ultra deepwater environments. 

Research and compiled information will be shown and presented to highlight the latest technologies for produced water treatment and their potential use at the seabed in the ultra deepwater production systems.

As the produced water from oil and gas production continues to increase, new advances in produced water treatment systems will help the industries water handling abilities and seek to extend the life of a producing reservoir.  This paper will focus on the three main benefits:

1.)    Significantly reducing the cost of the fluid transportation system from the well site to the host platform facility.

2.)    New produced water treatments systems are getting more reliable and compact, which is improving the water handling capabilities of many production systems and providing a smaller and lighter footprint on production facilities.

3.)    How can the new and improved produced water treatment systems be utilized at the seabed to help reduce the amount of treatment required on the surface and to improve subsea production.