Plenary Session
14 April
Executive Plenary Session
Moderators: Salman Al-Qabandi, Kuwait Oil Company; Talal Ouazzani, Baker Hughes
High-level speakers will address the conference theme by presenting their respective company’s full cycle of water management challenges, strategies, solutions, and lessons learnt.
15 April
Panel Session 1: A Vision for the Future of Water Management
Moderators: Graeme Taylor, Halliburton; Marcos Roberto, Total
Water production is an increasing challenge for the oil and gas industry, not only from a technical and economical point of view, but also for all environmental issues related to its management. Water is estimated today to represent about 75% of all the volumes produced by the oil industry worldwide. The actual growth trend implies a 50% increase over the next ten years for the injection and up to 100% for produced water.
The management of these large volumes of water, in which remain some ppm of oil and that may also contain chemical constituents and solid particles, has a large impact on the economics of oil and gas projects: about 25% of today's field development costs (Capex and Opex) are devoted to water treatment and re-injection (PWRI). A substantial part of these volumes is directly re-injected (about 1/3) in the fields, thus leaving large volumes to be treated for disposal, recycle or inclusive reuse as is the latest industry trend.
On the other hand, the potentially important impact that this activity may have on the environment has led the industry to endorse more astringent regulations which in turn will increase the costs.
The objective of this session is to discuss the main technical and strategic trends being developed in the industry to address and tackle these issues, either by minimising the produced volumes of water (e.g. dewatering by chemical/mechanical shut-off or down-hole separation), or optimising the water treatment with more efficient technologies for 1) its disposal (e.g. ultra-filtration with ceramic membranes, chemical, or "green" processes) or 2) its injection (e.g. membrane processes, hollow fiber membranes/deoxygenation, etc.).
The environmental impact of discharge and options for water recycle or reuse will also be addressed on subjects like industrial/agricultural use or domestic use.
16 April
Panel Session 2: An Integrated Approach to Water Management from Production to Re-Utilisation
Moderators: Brett Rimmer, Schlumberger; Yousef Abdul-Rahman, Kuwait Oil Company
Since oil production began, the disposal of the associated water has been a constant challenge for the oil and gas industry. The simplistic disposal of water on surface can create pollution and environmental problems. Downhole injection can be just as problematic as the volumes are large and ever increasing, especially in ageing fields. Over the last few years, the most popular option has been focused on pumping the water back to a sub-surface location that has been identified as a suitable disposal zone. The most preferred option will be to recycle the produced water as a compatible injection fluid that can be fully utilised for both pressure maintenance in depleted reservoirs as well as improving sweep efficiency.
On the other hand, produced water might be too valuable to waste. However, the only way to offset the high cost of conventional produced water treatment is to render it harmless and extract economic values including the recovery of oil, valuable salts, and usable water for multiple purposes using innovative and cost effective methods. As such, the focus of this session is the efficient re-utilisation of produced water.
