WILSA EWC Enhances Oil Recovery at North Texas Waterflood

WILSA's technology improves the efficiency of existing separation equipment, reducing oil in water reinjected into waterflood formation
 

Date: Nov 2013 – Jan 2014

Industry: Oil & Gas Production

Application: Waterflood

Success Factors:

  • Increased oil recovery
  • Less oil in recovered water
  • No Impact on production
  • Ease of installation into existing piping system
  • Low power requirements

WILSA® EWC Results:

  • Improved efficiency of 3-phase separator by 62%
  • Lowered oil content in water reinjected into the formation from 300ppm to < 50ppm

 

An operator in North Texas was processing production fluid comprising 99.6% water / 0.4% oil through an undersized 3-phase knockout unit. Water injected into the waterflood formation had an oil content of >300 ppm.

A solution was required to improve oil/water separation and reduce the amount of oil-in-water injected back into the formation.

A WILSA® ElectroWave Conditioner (EWC) G3 was installed upstream of the 3-phase separator processing an average of 8,700 bbl./day. Retention time of production fluid flowing through the separator was approximately 15 minutes.

Chemical treatment was limited to a scale inhibitor injected immediately upstream of the separator.

Produced water separated by the knockout unit was directed to water collection tanks. Trace amounts of oil in the water discharged from the knockout unit accumulated in the tanks, and was either skimmed off or injected into the formation.

After the in-line installation of the WILSA® EWC upstream of the separator, more oil was recovered from the production fluid and cleaner water was injected back into the waterflood formation.

Download PDF