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