Description
Partial Dewatering, Light Water Treatment, and Water Injection Facility:
- Massive brown-field under secondary & EOR development projects
- High water flow rates pumped around the field increased OPEX and CAPEX
- Large, complex, and expensive dewatering and water treatment facilities designed for +100,000 bbl./d built to reinject PW close to where it was produced
Challenge
- Extended time to “fill-up” the facilities, resulted in extended periods of operation in turndown regimes
- Longer time to repay the investment
- Not all the water was required close to the producing area resulting in complex water balances and water transfer networks
- Reduce footprint
- Simplify the process
- Modularize
- Treat only the amount of water required in the area and bypass the remainder downstream to the CPF
Project Development
- Field water balance developed to determine areas requiring additional capacity
- Determined the best capacity for the new modular design
- Determined the best locations
- Several process schemes were developed and assessed, including pressurized and atmospheric, tankless, and inline separation designs
Outcome
- Optimized existing capacity across the field minimizing investments in new facilities or expansions of existing ones
- New modules designed for +30,000 bbl./d, therefore, investments could be staged
- Simplified process arrangement with minimal controls
- Partial treatment design allowed treating only what is needed locally for reinjection thus reducing pumping costs and operational complexity.
- Take-Away: wide-angle perspective allowed a thorough analysis to maximize capacity and optimize future investments
