Technology, innovation and collaboration drive produced water strategy

摘要

E&P firms need strategic partners with the ability to provide proprietary technology, global project management and rapid response to address their specific produced water challenges and optimize operations and returns. As the produced water market continues to grow, the focus on produced water issues has increased not only because of the rising volumes of water generated by oil and gas operations but because the industry is increasingly risk-averse and environmentally aware. Produced water typically contains a combination of hydrocarbons and other constituents. These include salts, chemical additives and toxic compounds as well as solid wastes with harmful substances such as boron, sulfates, radioactive elements and heavy metals. The water already present in the reservoir and the use of water injection techniques to aid the secondary recovery process generates the largest volume byproduct stream with some 21 Bbbl of produced water generated each year in the U.S. alone. With 1 bbl equating to 159 1 (42 gal), this figure represents about 57 MMbbl/d or 9 billion l/d (2.4 billion gal/d), according to the U.S. National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).