Saudi Aramco Drives Technological Initiatives for Groundwater Conservation In Oil & Gas Production Facilities

Abstract

This paper describes Saudi Aramco's efforts in conserving groundwater in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Driving corporate-wide water conservation initiatives, Saudi Aramco has identified several technologies to pilot test and deploy. One of these initiatives involves the unique idea of treating relatively low salinity produced water, from crude oil desalters at Gas Oil Separation Plants, for use as a wash water stream for crude oil desalting. The concept, known as Desalter Effluent Reuse Technology (DERT), was successfully field-tested and is now being deployed on a commercial scale. The idea of treating & reusing desalter effluent water as desalter wash water and thereby conserving groundwater, was submitted for US patent on September 29, 2017, and assigned a Serial No. 15/719,884 by the US Patent and Trademark office. Saudi Aramco prepared a roadmap to pilot test several Desalter Effluent and produced water-based water conservation technologies, to deploy at GOSPs where seawater is not economically accessible.