Joint research between Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, and Petroleum Energy Center, Japan; sought to develop and establish a process whereby the large quantities of produced water from Omani oil fields can be effectively treated and utilized for irrigation. During pilot plant operation, oil contamination ranging from 50–300 ppm, was reduced to below 0.5 ppm. Irrigation with treated water showed no significant detrimental effects on the growth of three different salt tolerant species of plants. Introduction Produced water is the largest single associated waste product of oil production. It is a common phenomenon to find a water layer below an oil layer. Thus, oil production is usually accompanied by water. Total production of water is expected to be more than ten times that of oil, during the economic lifetime of an oil field1. A salient feature of oil production in Oman is the fact that the output of water already exceeds that of oil in most of the wells. During 1999, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), which holds roughly 95% share of total oil production in Oman, produced an estimated 450,000 m3/day of water as an associated co-product of its oil output of 135,000 m3/day. This volume of water is expected to increase steadily and double to 900,000 m3/day within ten years2. While in the northern oil fields of Oman, the separated water is re-injected into the oil bearing strata to maintain the reservoir pressure; in the southern oil fields, produced water has been disposed into the shallow water bearing strata in the past. However, due to fears of contamination of groundwater for human use with continued long-term shallow disposal, the government has prohibited this practice and all water disposal is being switched to deeper water bearing strata. Table 1, shows the PDO disposal history and forecast in the main oil fields in southern Oman. Beyond the year 2000, produced water disposal from these fields is expected to exceed 300,000 m3/day2. This volume is sufficient to irrigate 3000 hectares in an arid climate such as Oman. Although produced water is separated from oil in gravitational separation tanks and CPI separators, such water still contains 100–300 ppm oil. Table 2, shows the average oil concentration in produced water of south Oman oilfields2. While continued disposal of such produced water to shallow aquifers will result in groundwater contamination, disposal to deep aquifers is costly.
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