Itagyba Alvarenga Neto, Luiz Augusto De Oliveira Costa; IBAMA, Brazil  

Environmental Regulations and Requirements for the Discharge of Produced Water in Brazil

Offshore produced water treatment have challenges that are known for decades such as the classical problematic of space and weight limitations for equipment to handle water rate. This one is increasing with field ageing and then this is problematic will still be a first concern in future. Also classical constraints and challenges are the cost and environmental regulations, and these will become potentially more and more important. Water quality specifications are challenged, oil in water content to lower value, in some place the 15 mg/l target is under discussion, the tonnage of oil reject can also become a target, and water impact including chemical is also challenged. In addition to that, GHG emission must decrease and this come into the equation, especially for PWRI. In the context of energy transition, the cost is a big parameter, companies looking for low barrel development. Hence, handling produced water in the future needs to improve, it is time of opportunities.

Session Chairpersons: Claudio Furtado,Petrobras; Pierre Pedenaud, TotalEnergies

Flow Assurance represents the application of successful and economical processes so that the reservoir fluids can be delivered optimally from the pore space to the final point of discharge (sale, treatment or disposal). Flow insurance risks include the accumulation on both inorganic and organic deposits in wells, flowlines and facilities which can hinder the safe and reliable delivery of fluids. This session will focus on the flow assurance aspects of water management including inorganic scale mitigation, souring control, solids management, corrosion and water quality assurance, and will address issues related to pipeline integrity, chemical treatment, monitoring, and risk management.

Session Chairpersons: Paul Evans, Chevron; Gizem Ersoy Gokcal, ExxonMobil

Water production is almost always seen a cost in oil and gas field developments, and hence operation budgets target the cause and treatment of this water in order to minimize it. However, there are instances where water is a welcomed ally, such as in enhanced oil recovery projects. This theoretical and practical session is to highlight feasibility and requirements of projects where produced water reduces costs and increases revenue when is disposed underground to increase the recovery factor of the reservoir.
Completion, production and reservoir engineers should attend. 

Session Chairpersons: Diego Perez, YPF; Luis Quintero, Halliburton

Operators in different regions are trying different techniques, chemicals and technologies to improve produced water handling and quality in meeting environmental challenges as well as reducing environmental impact , improve productivity and reduce operational cost. The deployment of new technologies or advancing on old technologies have been tried in different regions both onshore and offshore with some success. Sharing the experience from the different regions will be provide the confidence in utilizing such technologies effectively while minimizing the environmental impact and maximizing resource utilization.

Session Chairpersons: Luciana Gusmão Freire, Equinor Brazil; Wally Georgie, MaxOil Consultancy; Gizem Ersoy Gokcal, ExxonMobil

Water managent in the enegry industry is an important topic that affect enviromental impact (discharge - GHG emmission impact), safety, cost and production. This session focuses on how to handle increased water rate bort related to limiting  water production and incresed injection rate. This incudes the cross disliplinene effort between subsurface, D&W (drilling / compl), facilities to achieve best as possible water management.

Session Chairpersons: Frode Uriansrud, Equinor; Lauren Flores, Chevron

Injecting water in for disposal, waterflood or EOR scenarios, or producing unwanted water, happens only through the well and its immediate vicinity, i.e. the wellbore. As such, each component of the flow path including but not limited to cement, reservoir, packers, tubing, sliding sleeves, etc., must be characterized and their behavior understood in numerous static and dynamic conditions.
This session illustrates how the wellbore is in the critical path of all processes and how it impacts all aspects of water management.

Session Chairpersons: Aline Machado de Azevedo Novaes, Petrobras; Luis Quintero, Halliburton

Produced water is conventionally treated through different mechanical, chemical, and biological methods. In the majority of existing production facilities, emphasis is on continuous operational optimizations to process higher production rates, while maintaining water quality targets for re-injection, discharge and/or re-use.  This will present unique challenges  and solutions for each production facility. In recent years, implementation of various processing technologies combined with the use of continuous online oil-in-water monitors has played an important role in the management of produced water. In addition, there is an increasing interest in the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques in this space. The objective of this session is to discuss these trends in new treatment and monitoring technologies as well as best operational practices.

Session Chairpersons: Ming Yang, National Engineering Lab; Shaya Movafaghian, CETCO Energy Services

Water injection is normally used as the preferred drainage mechanism and to optimize oil recovery. The quality of water injected into an oil reservoir has significant impact on the reservoir and fluids, but it is almost impossible to specify a “general water” that is suitable for all kinds of reservoir   . A thorough disinfection to mitigate souring of the reservoir and generation of H2S is a prerequisite. Solids have to be removed from the injection water to avoid plugging of the fine reservoir pore throats.  Further tailoring of the chemistry of the injection water to mitigate any compatibility issues between raw sea water and formation water is critical for many reservoirs and operation to avoid precipitation of solids and scaling. Change in salinity may alter the wettability conditions in some reservoirs and lead to increased oil recovery. Injection of aerated water has the potential to simplify treatment process and improve performance in many cases. The interaction between injected water, reservoir rock and fluid, is complex with big impact on performance. This session will discuss challenges, experience, and ways to improve water flooding. 

Session Chairpersons: Torbjørn Hegdal, NOV; Aline Machado de Azevedo Novaes, Petrobras

The oil and gas industry faces future challenges in handling the increased volume of produced water and with these challenges, there are increasing requirements to assess alternative options to utilize the PW for low carbon economy working environment and other uses that benefit the overall environment. In addition, with the scarcity of water resources globally, there are more needs to find means to utilize the PW from oil and gas industry for more useful industrial and agricultural applications, such as for industrial process, irrigation possibly initially for nonfood chain applications and with the future increased confidence, it  may lead to other irrigation use cover the food crop. In addition, the oil and gas industry may invest in research for more sustainable water management practices that potentially can reduce the use of water in the oil industry, as well as using the produced water to generate alternative energy, such as green hydrogen.

Session Chairpersons: Wally Georgie, MaxOil Consultancy; Pierre Pedenaud, TotalEnergies