“We are very excited about the global growth in EOR and the applications for this unique technology that to date have not been commercially available in the industry,” said Amanda Brock, CEO of WS.

The advantage of the H2Ocean Spectrum™ Technology is that a single system has the flexibility to produce a wide range of water quality from sulfate-reduced secondary injection seawater to specific water qualities that may be needed by a reservoir for a Low Salinity or Chemical EOR flood. Tuning the water chemistry and hardness levels in real time to maximize oil production is a primary challenge to the effective implementation of water based EOR. H2Ocean Spectrum is designed to meet that need. H2Ocean Spectrum systems also deliver a desired water quality specification on a continuous basis, even in changing feedwater conditions.

H2Ocean Spectrum™ can add long-term value to operators with minimal footprint and weight impact. WS’s CTO, Lisa Henthorne, explains, “We spent two years pioneering, testing and optimizing a system to provide a wide range of seawater treatment throughout the many phases of a field’s life. We recognized footprint and weight constraints, particularly offshore, and are pleased that on a comparative basis, the weight and footprint of our systems are not only close to that of existing technology, but have the added benefit of delivering the flexibility to safely and efficiently provide low sulphate, low hardness, or low salinity injection water for the required capacity.”

Managing injection water chemistry in EOR waterfloods is emerging as a significant challenge. In CEOR applications, salinity and selective ion removal can impact reservoir response, overall oil production, chemical performance and associated costs. In low salinity floods, it is critical to operate above deflocculation salinities to prevent plugging, while maximizing the shift in wettability of the reservoir. WS focuses on understanding source water quality, reservoir geochemistry, and optimum water characteristics in order to create water treatment systems that efficiently maximize oil recovery.

For more information on the H2Ocean Spectrum™ systems please contact us: info@waterstandard.com

The CEOR vessel will be owned by an independent joint venture to be finalised in the next few months between Petronas and its shipping unit, MISC. Malaysia’s largest oilfield services provider, SapuraKencana, was previously tipped to take on the fabrication of the topsides modules. However, a market survey has also been issued to other Malaysian yard operators for work on the vessel topsides estimated to weigh in at 7000 tonnes, up from the previous projection of 4000 tonnes. The topsides have been broken down into eight packages in­cluding owner-furnished equipment. The topsides comprise water treatment, chemical injection and nitrogen generation modules and will be installed aboard a converted, ship-shaped vessel. Separate bids will be called for the vessel conversion, although Pasir Gudang-based Malaysia Marine Heavy Engineering, is widely considered a front-runner for the contract. As much as 160,000 barrels per day of water mixed with an alkaline-surfactant-polymer cocktail will be injected into the Angsi reservoir to boost oil recovery. That volume is also up from the initial projection of 150,000 bpd.

The mixing of the chemical cocktail will be carried out on board the CEOR vessel. The joint venture between MISC and Petronas will handle the operations and maintenance of the vessel through its 10 years design life. The delivery of the CEOR vessel is scheduled for the end of 2014, but the final start-up may slip into early 2015, taking into consideration the monsoon season in Malaysia. The vessel is intended to operate on Angsi for the next four years and could be considered for re-deployment to other CEOR candidates including Shell-operated St Joseph field. St Joseph is now expected undergo a pilot CEOR process from 2014, followed by full-field application from 2016.

“We view Malaysia as an extremely promising market with tremendous potential. PETRONAS is leading the Industry and continues to pioneer innovative solutions to drive business growth and increase recoveries in the Malaysian Upstream market. On a wider scale, the Asia-Pacific region is an attractive market for us with the growing number of new EOR pilots and projects being announced. We see a real opportunity for the adoption and implementation of our H2OceanTM water treatment technology which provides clients with the unique ability to flexibly treat challenging source water to different levels of quality as needed during the life of a reservoir” said Amanda Brock, CEO of Water Standard. “We intend to rapidly grow our new subsidiary which will play a fundamental role in the development of business in the Asia-Pacific region and will be a valuable base of support for our growing customer and partner relations.”

The new subsidiary will be managed by Azmi Mahamad, Vice President – Asia Pacific who has spent his entire career in the Upstream Oil & Gas Industry, including roles in development projects, production operations, drilling & completions, and contracting.

About Water Standard
WATER STANDARD is a global water treatment specialist and recognized leader in delivering innovative desalination, water-based enhanced oil recovery and produced water solutions to the onshore and offshore oil & gas industry. The company uses proprietary designs and processes employing proven technologies incorporated into mobile offshore facilities or modular onshore customized water treatment systems. WATER STANDARD offers flexible contract options for products and services ranging from specialized engineering and design to turnkey and fully outsourced OPEX solutions. For more information visit: www.waterstandard.com.

In this article, the challenges and opportunities of these projects are discussed. The scope of this discussion is limited to topsides facilities in general and water treatment in
particular. Design issues, whether onshore or offshore, are discussed from both the water injection side and the handling of back-produced polymer for disposal injection or
for recycle.

To access the entire article Challenges of Water Treating for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery published in the August 2012 // Volume 1 Number 4 issue of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Oil and Gas Facilities Publication, please visit the publication’s website here. http://www.spe.org/ogf/print/

About the Authors

Lisa Henthorne is senior vice president and chief technology officer with Water Standard. She holds three US patents and has multiple patents pending in water treatment technology. Much of her present work is focused on developing customized water chemistries to enhance oil recovery in low salinity and chemical enhanced oil recovery.

John Walsh is SPE Technical Director for Projects, Facilities, and Construction and a chemical process engineer at Shell.