Overview

Welcome back to the Production/Facilities feature. This issue focuses on environmental and corrosion challenges. These challenges are especially important because the global production infrastructure is aging, with much of it more than 30 years old. These issues are, of course, intertwined because the materials and corrosion engineer spends much of his/her time preventing the produced fluids from escaping into the environment. This issue delves into new or revitalized developments in produced-water treatment. Concern has been mounting over the years regarding the effect on the environment of chemical treatments used by the industry when the chemicals are discharged with produced water, for example. New “green” corrosion inhibitors have been developed.

As well as preventing corrosion in susceptible materials, the materials and corrosion engineer also must be able to assess the effect of any corrosion that has occurred. State-of-the-art calculation of the corrosion rate is available. Also, a new approach has been developed to assess the internal condition of a pipeline accurately.

A low-cost water-purification treatment has been used in the sewage-treatment industry for many decades. It is being transferred to the petroleum industry. The use of reed beds is common as an alternative wastewater treatment in remote areas. This method is being used in the Nimr field, onshore Oman. Essentially, the reeds capture the impurities through the root system, where they are held in the plant tissue. The plants then can be harvested and used as biomass fuel, for example, and the residual ash, which contains the inorganic impurities, can be disposed of safely.

Reed-Bed Technology for Treating Oil-Production Water in the Sultanate of Oman
New Class of "Green" Corrosion Inhibitors: Development and Application
An Alternative Approach To Evaluate Internal Pipeline Condition
Monitoring the Effect of Nearshore Development and Production in the Beaufort Sea

Simon Richards, SPE, is a consultant facilities engineer for Petro-Canada, based in Aberdeen. He had 21 years’ experience with several operators and service providers before joining Petro-Canada. Richards earned a BSc (Honours) degree in chemical engineering from the U. of Birmingham, England. His main professional interests are field-development planning, new technologies, digital oil fields, multiphase flow, flow assurance, conceptual process engineering, and cost estimating. Richards is Executive Editor of the SPE Facilities & Construction e-Journal and Chairperson of the Production Systems and Facilities Technical Interest Group, and he serves on the JPT Editorial Committee and the SPE Production, Facilities, and Construction Advisory Committee. Richards is a Chartered Engineer in the U.K.

Overview

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