Economics of Downhole Oil-Water Separation: A Case History and Implications for the North Sea

Shaw, Chris; Fox, Michael

doi:10.2118/50618-ms

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Several studies, including laboratory experiments, simulations, modeling, feasibility analyzes, and field applications have been carried out to demonstrate the DOWS technology. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] DOWS consists essentially of two systems: a separation system and a pumping/injection system. Two basic types of DOWS systems have been developed based on the separation system utilized.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of Downhole Separation Technology

Ogunsina¹,

Wiggins²

2005

Proceedings of SPE Production Operations Symposium

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractIn recent years, a technique of separating water downhole to reduce the volume of produced water and decrease the chance of surface pollution has been developed. It is called downhole oil-water separation (DOWS) technology. This technique allows water to be separated in the wellbore and injected into a suitable injection zone downhole while oil with traces of water is produced to the surface.Subsequent to the introduction of the DOWS technology to the oil industry in the 1990's, several trial applications have been undertaken to test the technology. These trials allowed significant information to be collected on the feasibility of the DOWS technology. Through the joint efforts of Argonne National Laboratory, CH2M-Hill, and the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a comprehensive technical report was issued in January 1999 discussing this technology. Additional reports on trial applications and feasibility studies have been presented by various study groups.This paper reviews the status of and issues surrounding the application of downhole separation technology. This review summarizes the various papers and reports dealing with DOWS technology and its application in the oil and gas industry. This technology has the potential to provide significant reductions in produced water as the technology is adopted by the industry. It can also reduce produced water handling costs and increase oil and gas production in the right application. The wide-spread adoption of DOWS technology is dependent on improving the understanding of the process and its applications throughout the oil and gas industry.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Shaw et al 10 noted in their report that DOWS can also be classified based on the relative positioning of the pump and the separator assembly in the wellbore. If the fluid enters the separator assembly first, the configuration is called a pull through system.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Downhole Separation Technology

Ogunsina¹,

Wiggins²

2005

Proceedings of SPE Production Operations Symposium

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“…Most of the water is separated and injected into the reservoir formation, while the separated concentrate (produced liquid with less water than prior to separation) is raised to the surface. The two processes of oil recovery and water injection are completed at the same time in the same wellbore [6,7]. This process not only successfully reduces the water cut of the produced liquid and saves much cost, it also improves recovery efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Model and Analysis of a Sucker-rod Pump Injection-production System

et al. 2019

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Injection and production at the same oil well is an effective way to achieve stable production and control water-cut. A sucker-rod pump injection-production system is composed of a production pump, piston seal, injection pump, and so on. It separates oil and water down the well hole using gravity, then injects the water directly into the formation while the concentrated oil is brought to the surface. To explore the complex forces involved in the system, static and dynamic models of the injection pump, sealed piston and production pump are established from the bottom up based on the mechanical method, and a solution is established using the difference method. Finally, a dynamic simulation of the system is compiled in Visual Basic V6.0, and the correctness and practicality of the simulation are verified by field measurements.

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“…Also, additional requirement to lift the produced water is representing additional cost. Shaw and Fox [1] recognized that increasing water production in O&G wells as the single leading contributor to declining profitability in oil production. Ouyang and Aziz [2] and then, Ahmed and Ayoub [3] demonstrated that production of water-in-oil may also margin the well production life via fines migrations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It works with the combined use of static hydrocyclone and conventional Electrical Submersible Pumping systems (Shaw and Fox [1]). However, concomitant with the presented simulation study of the oil/water emulsion in this paper, is the utilisation of DOWS without usage of electric submersible pump (Yin et al [6]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamental Investigation of the Oil/Water Flow Emulsion in the Downhole by CFD Simulation

Al-Kayiem¹,

Jamil²

2017

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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Downhole oil/water separation methods are based on hydrocyclone technique. Most of the related investigations have a focus on the flow structure inside the cyclone. There is a lack of studies and simulations on the wellbore flow pre-and post-separation. The current computational simulation of the oil/water flowing inside wellbore before and after separation by counter current hydrocyclone. The emulsion of oil/water in the well production and dumping zones in the downhole, was simulated using ANSYS-Fluent 14 software and it was attempted to visualize the volume fraction profiles, density distribution profiles and the flow patterns in a real downhole environment. The well geometries and the oil/water production candidates at the downhole have been adopted from a real well in an offshore field in Malaysia. The results illustrated the great complexity of oil/water flows, reflecting the many competing processes; e.g. turbulence, gravitational separation, droplets interaction and the shear between the two liquids and with the solid surfaces. The simulation results in the production zone indicate that distribution of the oil volume fraction depends highly on the mean oil volume fraction. The contour results showed that the phases mix and achieve uniform distribution as the flow proceeds down the annulus. The achieved simulation results will contribute to better forecasting of the behaviour of oil/water mixture inside the wellbores with the presence of a hydrocyclone with one or multi inlets.

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Economics of Downhole Oil-Water Separation: A Case History and Implications for the North Sea

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

A Review of Downhole Separation Technology

A Review of Downhole Separation Technology

Dynamic Model and Analysis of a Sucker-rod Pump Injection-production System

Fundamental Investigation of the Oil/Water Flow Emulsion in the Downhole by CFD Simulation

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