Innovations on Reducing Environmental Footprint of an EOR Project

Abstract

This paper presents the innovative practices and methods to reduce the environmental impact of an EOR project in the Daqing oilfield. Field results were presented to validate those effective management practices in terms of reducing environmental impact. Environmental protection is becoming more and more important in terms of EOR processes. In this study, an environment friendly surfactant and polymer system were developed and applied in current EOR Project. A new injection system for this EOR system was also designed to minimize carbon footprint by the deployment of much smaller in size and weight equipment without compromising performance and safety. In addition, on-site collection and recycling technique is applied to reuse chemicals instantly onsite to minimize environmental storage problems and environmental exposure of these materials. Field application of this novel surfactant and polymer system for EOR satisfies government's environmental health and safety requirements. The new designed injection system uses less than 60% electric power than previous traditional injection systems on average. The system is skid-mounted and very flexible, further reducing additional manpower without compromise performance and safety. Oil spills were substantially reduced to the lowest levels by 48%. Chemical spills were reduced almost by 80% at in-house locations. Chemical recycling also reduced total chemical costs by 10%, along with the reduction in associated HSE impact. The practices in this paper achieved both the production goals and reduction of environmental impact when deploying this new surfactant and polymer system for EOR. Reduction of environmental impact can be achieved without compromising performance and safety in EOR operations.