TITLE:
Variability in Quantity and Salinity of Produced Water from an Oil Production in South Kuwait
AUTHORS:
Feras Al Salem, Thies Thiemann
KEYWORDS:
Produced Water, Oil Wells, Water-Cut, Salinity Fluctuation, Total Dissolved Solids
JOURNAL NAME:
Engineering,
Vol.16 No.1,
January
31,
2024
ABSTRACT: Produced
water (PW) is the largest waste stream in the oil and gas industry. Water
remains trapped for millions of years in the reservoir with oil and gas. When a
hydrocarbon reservoir is infiltrated by a production well, the produced fluids
commonly contain water. The understanding of this water’s constituents and
volumes is vital for the sustainable continuity of production operations, as PW
has a number of negative impacts on the infrastructure integrity of the
operation. On the other hand, PW can be an alternative source of irrigation
water as well as of industrial salt. Interestingly, both the quantity as well
as the quality of PW do not remain constant but can vary, both progressively and
erratically, even over short periods of time. This paper discusses such a
situation of variable PW in an oil and gas operation in the State of Kuwait.