VWS Westgarth specialises in the turnkey design and build of water treatment plants for

upstream oil and gas markets. We are the world leader in seawater sulphate removal packages
(SRP), and also supply complete produced water treatment and wash water systems on a
global basis.
A blue chip client base coupled with extensive experience of offshore engineering standards
and requirements means that VWS Westgarth is very well placed to continue to develop and
install market leading solutions. VWS Westgarth is a member of the VWS Oil & Gas group
within Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS), the worlds largest water treatment
company.
Water injection systems
Water injection is the action of injecting water into a reservoir to maintain pressure and
encourage hydrocarbons to the producing well. In many situations, the most convenient fluid
for injection is the produced water from the well. Injection is also a convenient method of
produced water disposal. In an offshore environment, seawater is often the preferred source
of injection water.
The quality of the water for injection, from whatever source, will be required to be of a
standard that will not cause problems such as plugging and/or scaling of the injection
equipment. This is an important issue, especially offshore, where drilling a new well is
extremely expensive.
In addition, because a reservoir is effectively sterile, injecting water containing oxygen and
bacteria can cause 'souring' of the reservoir. A 'sour' reservoir is one where there is the
presence of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in the hydrocarbons. Souring reduces the value of the
produced hydrocarbons and requires expensive production equipment and materials to cope
with the aggressive nature of the produced fluids. Typical contaminants that need to be
removed from injection water are:
Hydrocarbons
Solids
Scaling compounds such as sulphate
Sulphate reducing bacteria
Sulphate removal systems
Sulphate removal systems work through the injection of water into the reservoir to enhance
oil recovery (EOR) by maintaining the reservoir pressure and to sweep displaced oil towards
the production wells. Sea water typically contains 2,650mg/l of sulphate ions. Formation
water in the reservoir will contain barium from a norm of 200mg/l to a high of 2,500mg/l.
This barium will react with the injected sea water sulphate ions causing barium sulphate
scale.
The industry recognised solution is to remove sulphate from sea water before injection; this
also helps prevent well souring by controlling sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). The
"Sulphate Removal Process" was developed and patented by Marathon Oil/Dow in the late
1980s, and the technology design granted to global sub-licensees.
Produced water treatment systems
Produced water is any water that is 'produced' to the surface from an oil or gas reservoir along
with the oil and gas. The contaminants need to be removed to enable the produced water to be
re-used or disposed of. There are a number of options available for the disposal or reuse of
produced water, each of which will have different water treatment criteria associated with it:
Surface disposal into the sea, watercourse or into evaporation ponds, subject to local
environmental regulations
Injection into a disposal well, either a watered out part of the reservoir or to a disposal
formation
Reinjection for pressure maintenance, replacing sea/aquifer/river water as the source
of water injection
Reuse for irrigation or as industrial process water
Water treatment system turnkey package
VWS Westgarth engineers, procures and project manages the complete produced water
treatment system including:
Oil/water plate separators
STREAMLINER de-oiling hydrocyclones
De-sanding hydrocyclones
Degassing plant
Cophase compact flotation units (CFU)
Macro porous polymer extraction (MPPE)
Dual-media filters
Ultrafiltration with ceramic membranes
Membrane sulphate removal
System healthcare
(Ref: http://www.offshore-technology.com/contractors/separation/westgarth/ accessed on
15/5/2014)
Water is a critical component in processes to maximize extraction of Original Oil In Place
(OOIP) through secondary and tertiary oil recovery technology. Off-shore operations
frequently practice sulfate removal for Sea Water Flooding and Chemically Enhanced Oil
Recovery . Dow Water & Process Solutions provide a wide range of technologies to help you
manage water resources and your producing formations, including;
FILMTEC Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Nanofiltration (NF) elements for sea water and
brackish water desalination
FILMTEC SR-90 Nanofiltration elements for sulfate reduction
DOW ULTRAFILTRATION (UF) modules for protection of RO membranes and formation
permeability
DOWEX and AMBERLITE Ion Exchange (IX) resins to treat produced water for reinjection
TEQUATIC PLUS Fine particle filtration for injection water

Injection Water Definitions
PRIMARY RECOVERY
During primary recovery, natural pressures drive oil, gas and water toward the lower pressure
wellbore and to the surface. Typically, primary production will recover 10-15% of the
OOIP. With time, primary oil recovery sees a natural decline, often accompanied by an
increase in the percentage of water cut. At any point during primary production the operator
may choose secondary recovery methods to improve productivity of the field.
SECONDARY RECOVERY
Secondary recovery methods, also called Improved Oil Recovery (IOR), include injecting
water into the hydrocarbon-bearing zone to provide sweep, (water flooding) or to increase
pressure driving oil to the well (pressure maintenance). Historically, water injection has been
associated with late stages of the oilfield lifecycle. The trend today is to start water flooding
earlier in the oilfield lifecycle. For example, in offshore drilling, early-phase water flooding
of seawater injection starts soon after first oil. DOW FILMTEC SR90 membranes are used
to remove sulphate and improve long-term recovery of oil. For conventional oil wells, water
flooding has widely been reported to recover an additional 10-30% OOIP vs. primary
production, with total recovery of 20-45% OOIP.
TERTIARY RECOVERY
Tertiary recovery methods, also called Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), are used to recover
the last oil in conventional reservoirs, decrease water cut and recover crude oil that is not
easily extracted. For conventional oil reservoirs, tertiary recovery is usually applicable after
secondary recovery. The additional recovery target is up to ~45% OOIP. Some crude oil
deposits, including viscous heavy oil and bitumen, may respond poorly, or not at all, to
primary and secondary recovery methods. EOR techniques include Chemical EOR (cEOR)
and Thermal EOR (steam flooding, SAGD, etc). Source water composition and produced
water treatment are very critical to these production processes.
(Ref: http://www.dowwaterandprocess.com/en/industries-and applications / oil _ field _ water /
injection _water accessed on 15/5/2014)
Produced water is defined as water brought to the surface (i.e. produced) from crude oil
and natural gas wells and is the largest volume by-product associated with hydrocarbon
production. Produced water characteristics and management practices vary widely field-to-
field as do the treatment needs for reuse and discharge.
Dow Water and Process Solutions offer a wide selection of technologies to meet your water
treatment needs from fine particle filtration with TEQUATIC PLUS fine particle filter to
AMBERLITE selective ion exchange resins for boron removal to OPTIPORE
polymeric adsorbents for BTEX and soluble hydrocarbon recovery.
Applications include:
Coal Bed Methane (Coal Seam Gas)
Heavy Oil
Shale Gas & Oil
Fine Particle Filtration
Boron Removal
BTEX Recovery
Hardness removal (Na+ cycle WAC)


(Ref: http://www.dowwaterandprocess.com/en/industries-and-applications / oil _ field _ water /
produced_water) accessed on