In a significant number of oil and gas fields, production chemicals like corrosion inhibitors are continuously injected subsea at the wells and can cause issues with produced water quality. Corrosion inhibitors are generally injected to prevent corrosion in carbon Steel flow lines and can operate by the formation of a chemical film barrier along the interior surface of the flow line. However, when the fluids mix at the production facility the chemical interactions of the oil, inhibitor and water can create a tight emulsion that is extremely challenging to remove from the produced water. Existing water and oil separation treatment equipment is quite commonly unable to separate the water from the hydrocarbons in this emulsion as droplet sizes are often < 10 μm, resulting in produced water with non-compliant dispersed oil in water (OiW) content for overboarding. After extensive testing of a large range of technologies, ceramic membrane technology turned out to be one of the most suitable technologies to treat the produced water down to compliant levels required by the OSPAR regulations, < 30 mg/l dispersed OiW. The information that will be presented in the presentation is real-life operational data from pilot tests as well as the first of its kind full field commercial deployment of Liqtech/Semco silicon carbide (SiC) ultrafiltration membrane technology for offshore OiW removal. This first full field application will likely pave the way for further deployment of this technology in (offshore) oil and gas operations.
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