Water Handling Training

Course Outline & Aims:

Wellhead fluids comprise crude oil, natural gas and brine and hence oil and gas production involve a number of surface unit wellheads between the operation and the point of custody transfer or transport from the production facilities. Collectively, these operations are termed field handling.

The separation of the gas-oil-brine wellstream into its individual phases is important in order to obtain crude oil without free or emulsified water/brine and entrained solids, and waters produced with petroleum are growing in importance from an environmental standpoint. In the past, these waters were considered waste and required disposal. Early on, less attention was paid to the fate of the produced water in the environment, because, after all, it was only water. It later became clear that possible contamination from produced-water disposal practices, especially on the surface, needed to be considered. The bulk of produced water from land-based operations is re-injected. Injection of these waters back into the petroleum reservoir serves three purposes: it produces additional petroleum through secondary recovery (water-flooding), it uses a potential pollutant, and, in some areas, it controls land subsidence.

Secondary and tertiary oil-recovery processes that use water injection result in the production of even more water with the oil. To inject these waters into reservoir rocks, suspended solids and oil must be removed to an appropriate degree to prevent plugging. Most offshore platforms dispose of their produced water directly into the ocean, but have to meet increasingly stringent regulations on the entrained and dissolved oil and other chemicals that are in the produced water. Some offshore operators are considering produced-water reinjection to avoid meeting these expensive ocean-disposal requirements. Thus water handling may comprise produced waters for disposal and/or re-injecting, or additional injection waters used for formation flooding or reservoir-pressure maintenance.

Course Objectives:

Extraction of oil and gas from underground reservoirs is accompanied by water or brine, which is referred to as produced water. As reservoirs mature, especially if secondary or tertiary recovery methods are used, the quantity of water climbs and often exceeds the volume of the hydrocarbons before the reservoir is exhausted. The cost of producing, handling, and disposing of the produced water often defines the economic lifetime of a field and the actual hydrocarbon reserves; therefore, understanding and predicting the aspects, behaviour, and problems induced by water handling is important. The objectives of this course are to provide delegates with the appropriate knowledge, skills and competencies in order to apply theory and practise to efficient wellhead operations.

Intended for:

The nature of the course is such that field production and water handling operators can be accommodated.

Methods of Instruction:

Course participants will be required to apply knowledge gained during tutored sessions into group discussions and syndicate sessions, and will identify and define appropriate strategies and their application to industrial case studies.

Delivery Methods:

Course delivery will comprise a combination of short power point presentations with flip chart calculations and demonstrations. Delegate handouts will include notes on technical theory, together with photographs and diagrams of specific equipment and processes.

Programme Schedule:

Day 1: Wellhead Operations

Session 1 – Produced water properties

Session 2 – Produced water behaviour

Session 3 – Fluid Mechanic Fundamentals

Day 2: Water Handling 1

Session 4 – Bernouilli’s Principle, Head Losses & Darcy Friction Factors

Session 5 – Total Energy & Hydraulic Gradients

Session 6 – Maintenance & Troubleshooting

Day 3: Water Handling 2

Session 7 – Pumping Operations, QH Curves, Efficiency & Duty Points

Session 8 – Valve Operation, Pressure Transients, Surge & Water Hammer

Session 9 – Case Study

Course Duration: 3 Days

Water Handling Training Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Dunfermline and other sites throughout the UK including onsite closed company courses are available.

Water Handling Training Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, India, Ghana and Nigeria is also available.