Comprehensive System for Treatment and Injection of Produced Water: Field Case I. Mantilla; I. Mantilla Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos, Ecopetrol Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar P. Quintero P. Quintero Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos, Ecopetrol Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas, October 2000. Paper Number: SPE-63169-MS https://doi.org/10.2118/63169-MS Published: October 01 2000 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Mantilla, I., and P. Quintero. "Comprehensive System for Treatment and Injection of Produced Water: Field Case." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas, October 2000. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/63169-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAll ProceedingsSociety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition Search Advanced Search AbstractThis work describes a comprehensive system that was designed, built and commissioned in Yarigui-Cantagallo field (Colombia) for treating and re-injecting produced water.The facility mainly consists of one plate-pack separator, one induced-gas flotation cell, one nutshell filter and high-pressure pumps. Field data including water quality analysis in all stages of treatment are shown as well as calculated efficiencies for the equipment.This system is adequate to obtain high quality water for re-injection in very tight formations.IntroductionOperation of mature oil fields causes a very strong impact upon the environment. This is very often the case in Colombia. State-owned company, Ecopetrol, faces the challenge of repairing the effects on the ecosystem by long time operations.Yarigui-Cantagallo field is located in the Middle Magdalena Basin. It extents for an area of 2965 acres over Bolivar, Antioquia and Santander Departments. The field is divided in two by the Magdalena River. It has been in operation since 1943 by several companies including Socony Vacuum, Shell and Ecopetrol (since 1973). It reached a peak production of 17000 bbl/D in 1964. Current production is 5100 bbl/D of 20° API oil with a GOR of 500 and 2500 bbl/D of water.Production coming from 58 beam pumped wells goes to Dehydration Plant located at Isla 6. Oil treatment consists of chemical injection, heating and gravity separation in tanks. 900 bbl/D of fresh water are added to lower salt content in crude oil. Water treatment consisted of retention time given by API separators and aerobic lagoons prior to its discharge to Magdalena River. Main contaminants in the produced water are dissolved solids, Barium and Strontium as shown in TABLE 1.Colombian environmental regulations1 do not allow the discharge of this kind of water without treatment, therefore the project of eliminating the impact of produced waters upon the environment was created.Several alternatives were studied to handle produced waters, i.e. evaporation, reverse osmosis, ionic exchange, chemical treatment, biotechnology,2 mangroves,3 re-injection, etc. All the aforementioned alternatives generate by-products, namely salts, barium and strontium compounds, which sometimes are more difficult to dispose of than produced water itself.It was concluded that re-injection is the more suitable and economically feasible alternative. By re-injecting the water into the formation, the problem is solved completely. Only remains the handling of oily mud, which is relatively easily treated and disposed of.Definition of the Treatment SystemThe starting point of the project was the selection of the formation where to inject the water. Escobar and Carrillo4 conducted a geological study to identify a candidate formation for injection or disposal of produced water. Central Block-V of Cantagallo sands, La Paz Formation, was selected for injection. This block presents an average porosity of 19%, absolute permeability of 65 milidarcies, reservoir pressure of 2400 psi, porous volume of 840 MMbbl and depth of 8000 ft.Produced-water displacement tests conducted in cores of well Yr-13 at 150°F and 1500 psi, showed that at injection rates of 900 bbl/D there exists solids migration. In addition, pore throat size of 8 (m was determined with a Mercury Porosimeter and Electronic Microscope.Well Yr-8 was selected as a good candidate for injection. It was drilled in 1957 reaching the aquifer of Cantagallo Sands. The well was conditioned as an injector and CBL-VDL-GR logs were run to check the status of cement about perforations depth of 7936 ft. A volume of 37524 bbl of produced water was injected into well Yr-8 during 30 days at different rates to determine reservoir potential to receive water. It was determined from the test that the adequate injection rate is 1000 bbl/D at an expected wellhead pressure of 1700 psi. A fracture gradient of 0.68 psi/ft was confirmed.Fig. 1 shows the results of the test. Keywords: treatment system, spe 63169, pipeline corrosion, materials and corrosion, drillstem testing, produced water discharge, flowline corrosion, storage tank, enhanced recovery, well yr-8 Subjects: Processing Systems and Design, Pipelines, Flowlines and Risers, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Formation Evaluation & Management, Environment, Materials and corrosion, Drillstem/well testing, Water use, produced water discharge and disposal, Well Integrity, Subsurface corrosion (tubing, casing, completion equipment, conductor) This content is only available via PDF. 2000. Society of Petroleum Engineers You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.