Produced Water 101 - The Produced Water Society 16/07/2019, 16*59

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PRODUCED WATER 101

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EVENTS
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WHAT IS

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PRODUCED
RESOURCES WATER?
(HTTP://WWW.PRODUCEDWATERSOCIETY.COM/RESOURCES-
2/) Produced
water is
water found

' in the same

CONTACT formations as
(HTTP://WWW.PRODUCEDWATERSOCIETY.COM/CONTACT-
PWS/) oil and gas.
When the oil
and gas flow

( to the surface, the produced water is brought to the surface

STORE with the hydrocarbons. Produced water contains some of the
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chemical characteristics of the formation from which it was
produced and from the associated hydrocarbons.

'
NEWSLETTER
IN-OIL/)
Produced water may originate as natural water in the
formations holding oil and gas or can be water that was
(HTTP://WWW.PRODUCEDWATERSOCIETY.COM/WATER-
previously injected into those formations through activities
designed to increase oil production from the formations such
as water flooding or steam flooding operations. In some
situations additional water from other formations adjacent to
the hydrocarbon-bearing layers may become part of the
produced water that comes to the surface.

Most wells in unconventional oil and gas formations are

stimulated using hydraulic fracturing, through which water is
injected under pressure into the formation to create pathways
allowing the oil or gas to be recovered in a cost-effective
manner. Immediately following hydraulic fracturing in the well
(a frac job), some of the injected water returns to the surface
and is known as flowback water. Flowback water is often

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managed in a similar manner to produced water and some

engineers in the industry consider it as part of the produced
water flow stream.

HOW MUCH PRODUCED WATER IS GENERATED?

Nearly every oil and gas well generates water as part of the
production process. The United States has almost 1 million
producing oil and gas wells. During 2012 (the most recent
year for which national volume data have been collected),
21.2 billion barrels (bbl = 42 gallons) of produced water were
generated in the United States. By comparison, this is more
than twice the amount of water that typically flows over the
Niagara Falls each day. This volume can be expressed in
other units:

- 58 million bbl/day

- 890 billion gallons/year or 2.44 billion gallons/day

- 3.57 billion m3/year or 9.2 million m3/day

Regardless of how the volume is expressed, it is a huge

quantity of water. The rest of the world generates large
volumes of produced water too, but insufficient data are
available to make a precise estimate.

97% of the produced water comes from onshore wells

located in 31 states. The remainder comes from offshore
platforms in U.S. waters. More than one third of the U.S.
produced water is generated in the state of Texas.

Based on 2012 data from 21 states, an average of 9.2 bbl of

produced water is generated for each bbl of oil. However,
data supporting that calculation were not available from
Texas and Oklahoma, which have tens of thousands of old
wells producing high percentages of water. If those states
had been averaged in, it is likely that the actual ratio of water
to oil would be higher than 10-to-1.

IS THE VOLUME OF PRODUCED WATER INCREASING OVER

TIME?

Many people assume that produced water totals will increase

over time. In most conventional oil and gas wells, the volume
of produced water from an individual well does increase over

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time. However, at some point the cost of managing the water

becomes too high. At that point the well operator can work
over the well to make it more efficient or can close the well.

From a national perspective, total produced water volume did

not increase significantly between 2007 and 2012. During
that five-year period, U.S. oil production increased by 29%,
gas production increased by 22%, but water production
increased by less than 1%. One explanation for these data is
that many of the older conventional wells that generated a
high lifetime volume of water were closed. Many of the
newer wells that were drilled were unconventional wells that
generated a lower lifetime total of produced water.

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PRODUCED

WATER?

The physical and chemical properties of produced water vary

considerably depending on the geographic location of the
field, the geologic formation from which the water was
produced, and the type of hydrocarbon product being
produced. The major constituents of concern are:

• Salt content (often expressed as salinity, conductivity,

or total dissolved solids [TDS]). Although some produced
water is nearly fresh (<3,000 mg/L TDS), most produced
water is saltier than seawater (~35,000 mg/L), and can be
>300,000 mg/L). Removing salt is not difficult, but it is
usually costly.

• Oil and grease. This is not a single chemical

compound; the analytical method for oil and grease
measures various organic compounds associated with
hydrocarbons in the formation). Oil and grease can be found
in different physical forms:

- Free oil: large droplets - readily removable by

gravity separation methods

- Dispersed oil: small droplets - somewhat difficult to

remove; and

- Dissolved oil: hydrocarbons and other similar

materials dissolved in the water stream - very
challenging to eliminate.

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• Inorganic and organic toxic compounds. The toxics

may be introduced as chemical additives to improve drilling
and production operations or they may leach into the
produced water from the formation rock or the hydrocarbon.

• Naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM).

Some hydrocarbon-bearing formations contain natural
radiation that leaches into the produced water. The presence
and concentration of NORM varies between formations.

HOW IS THE PRODUCED WATER MANAGED?

The most recent set of U.S. data on produced water

management was collected for the year 2012. Most U.S.
produced water was injected. About 91% of the produced
water was injected underground (this included water injected
for enhanced recovery, water injected for disposal, and water
sent to offsite commercial disposal). Slightly more than half of
that was injected into producing formations for enhanced
recovery. Slightly less than half of the injected produced
water was injected to non-commercial and commercial
disposal wells.

About 80% of the produced water from offshore wells was

treated on the platform and discharged to the ocean. Only
about 3% of onshore produced water was discharged. The
percentage discharged from all wells (onshore and offshore
combined) was about 5.6%.

Nearly 7% of produced water was managed by sending it to

an offsite commercial facility, where the water was treated
and disposed. These are third-party businesses that charge a
fee to receive incoming produced water and other oil and gas
wastes. Water was treated and processed in various ways.
Most of these facilities managed water by injection into
disposal wells.

About 3.6% of all produced water was evaporated. In some

arid western states, produced water was managed through
evaporation from onsite ponds and pits. Several commercial
facilities managed water by evaporation from large ponds.

At least 0.6% of the produced water and flowback water in

2012 was put to a beneficial reuse – it is likely that a higher
percentage was reused, but data were not available to
quantify the amount. Much of the reuse was done by

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recycling flowback water and produced water to make drilling

fluids and frac fluids for new wells in the same fields.
Produced water may also have been used for irrigation (when
the water has low salinity) or for dust and ice control on
roads.

WHAT TYPE OF PROCESSING OR TREATMENT MUST BE

DONE TO PRODUCED WATER?

Produced water receives various types of treatment before it

is disposed, reused, or otherwise managed. Many types of
processes and technologies can be used to treat produced
water depending on how clean the water must be before it
moves on to its destination. For example, produced water
must be treated to remove oil and grease and toxic chemicals
before discharging it to the ocean from an offshore platform.
Produced water that is discharged to onshore freshwater
rivers must be further treated to reduce salt content. Water
that is injected for either enhanced recovery or for disposal is
treated in a different way from water that is discharged. The
treatment processes used prior to injection are designed to
remove free oil, solids, and bacteria. Chemicals are often
used to enhance treatment processes and to protect
underground formations and equipment.

As oil, gas, and water are produced from a well, the fluids
need to be separated into separate streams. This is typically
done using some type of gravity separation, such as API
separators, free water knockout tanks, or gun barrel
separators. In addition to separating the fluids, these devices
allow for large solid particles to settle out. When the oil and
water are emulsified, they can be separated by applying heat
or appropriate chemical treatments.

It is not possible or practical to list or describe all types of

treatment technologies. As a starter, here are some generic
types of technologies that may be used. They are grouped
by which constituents of produced they are primarily
designed to treat. In most instances, these technologies are
not used by themselves – they are stages in a
pretreatment/treatment system.

Technologies Used to Remove Oil and Grease and Other

Organics

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Gravity separation
Physical separation
Filtration
Hydrocyclones
Centrifuges
Coalescence
Flotation
Combined physical and chemical processes
Adsorption
Oxidation

Technologies Used to Remove Metals and Other Inorganics

pH Adjustment and Clarification

Membrane processes
Reverse osmosis
Filtration
Ion exchange
Electrocoagulation

Technologies Used for Removing Salinity

Reverse osmosis
Thermal distillation
Crystallization

Technologies Used to Control Microbial Organisms

Chemical biocides
Ultraviolet light
Ozone

Much more information on these technologies can be found

through Internet searches.

OTHER PRODUCED WATER CONSIDERATIONS

Produced water has several properties that are frequently not

well understood and ignorance of them complicates the
treatment. First, produced water contains chemical
equilibrium systems that shift with changes in temperature
and pressure and cause reactions to occur. These reactions
may result in mineral scales being formed, solid hydrocarbon
deposition (paraffin formation) and changes in pH. Second,
produced water does not normally contain oxygen. Some of
its components are in a chemically reduced state and will

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react with oxygen if the water is allowed to contact air. This

can result in deposition of iron compounds and elemental
sulfur.

Treatment of produced water is complicated by the changing

concentrations of constituents, intermittent addition of
process chemicals, and a need to treat consistently and
dependably in oil field settings that often have extreme
temperatures, and a lack of utilities and infrastructure.

Some potential problems associated with managing produced

water include:

Plugging of disposal wells by solid particles and

suspended oil droplets,
Plugging of lines, valves, and orifices due to deposition
of inorganic scales,
Corrosion due to acid gases and electrochemical
reactions of the water with piping and vessel walls,
Growth of bacteria that plug lines and valves or result in
the formation of harmful products.

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