Environmental Impact of Produced Water in Oil and Gas Industry

Point Roberts, WA, April 25, 2009 --(PR.com)-- InvestorIdeas.com, a leading global investor and industry research portal covering water, environment and oil and gas sectors, presents a water stocks sector close-up on produced water in the oil and gas industry, problems and solutions. Publicly traded companies providing solutions include Nature Group, Siemens Water Technologies and Wescorp Energy Inc.

According to the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), part of DOE’s national laboratory system, approximately 15-20 billion bbl (barrels; 1 bbl = 42 U.S. gallons) of produced water are generated each year in the United States from nearly a million wells, and more than 50 billion bbl of produced water are generated each year at thousands of wells in other countries.

As water and environmental issues now play a major role in the future of the oil and gas industry, here is how three public companies are coming up with solutions.

Wescorp Energy Inc. an oil and gas solutions provider of water remediation and environmental technologies, announced in December 08, that Weatherford International Ltd., had executed a letter of intent for the testing of Wescorp's wholly-owned water remediation technology, H2Omaxx, in two projects in South America. H2Omaxx is a water remediation unit that consistently provides safe, effective and economical separation of oil from produced water.

When asked if Wescorp Energy technology works for all produced water applications, on shore and off shore, Dave LeMoine, Vice President of Business Development commented, “In general the answer would be yes, Wescorp’s technology has been independently proven to have a high level of scalability and effectiveness, allowing it to be used on a single well to multi well applications or projects such as Offshore Platforms or in conventional or unconventional oil development such as the Oilsands in Alberta. Wescorp gives the oil companies three streams, Clean water Clean solids and Ultrafines and resalable oil.

The client problem could be environmental, cost related, regulatory compliancy, revenue generated, process improvement based, or a host of other issues. “

According to Nature Group’s, CEO, Richard Eldridge, “There is now wide agreement within the petroleum industry, governments and scientists that focus should now be put on dissolved organic components, heavy metals and production chemicals. The oil in water content shall be as low as possible and the industry shall make use of best available technology (BAT).”

The Nature process for treatment of produced water is based on addition of patented coagulant/flocculant in existing or partially modified water systems. The agent is injected into the produced water upstream a static mixer or various process equipment (pumps, valves etc.) to provide sufficient in- mixing. The agent separates dispersed and dissolved hydrocarbons and is floated and skimmed off in a flotation vessel downstream the in-mixing point.

Siemens A G ADR - Siemens Water Technologies was recently selected by Petro-Canada to provide a system for treating coal-bed-methane (CBM) produced water at the Mitchell Draw CBM Project near Gillette, Wyoming, USA. The system will treat 72,000 barrels per day (3 MGD) of CBM produced water, removing contaminants like sodium (Na) and total dissolved solids (TDS), which will allow the plant to meet current state regulatory requirements.

Siemens states it has 750 onshore and offshore produced water treatment systems, treating about 6 million barrels of water per day.

According to Eddy Isaacs, managing director of the Alberta Energy Research Institute, “Companies now have to worry about the environment as much as they need to worry about their production.” *1

So What is Produced Water?
The US Department of the Interior defines Produced water as “mainly salty water trapped in the reservoir rock and brought up along with oil or gas during production. It can contain very minor amounts of chemicals added downhole during production. These waters exist under high pressures and temperatures, and usually contain oil and metals. Because of this, they must be treated prior to being discharged overboard. As with drilling muds, following treatment, they must be tested for toxicity and cannot exceed set discharge rates.”

Most produced waters contain combinations or mixture of: Dissolved inorganic salts, dispersed oil droplets, dissolved organic compounds (dissolved "oil"), treatment and workover chemicals dissolved gases (particularly hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide), bacteria and other living organisms, and dispersed solid particles.

The Produced Water Society reports, “The ability to efficiently and economically dispose of this water is critical to the success in the oil production business.”

Learn more about produced water solutions:
Featured Showcase Water Stock:
Wescorp Energy Inc Showcase Profile Page:
water-stocks.com/CO/WSCE/Default.asp
Wescorp Energy Inc Company Website: wescorpenergy.com/

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*1Source: calgaryherald.com/business/Innovations+pave+cleaner+oilsands/1508350/story.html

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Dawn Van Zant: 800-665-0411 - dvanzant@investorideas.com

Source – Wescorp Energy Inc, Investorideas.com, Nature Group

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