Supplying produced water

ENPPI has selected Siemens Water Technologies to provide a produced water treatment system as part of an expansion at Saudi Aramco’s Safaniya plant in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.

The new system will remove high concentrations of free oil from the water stream with the dissolved gas flotation (DGF) method from Siemens, so the water can be used for subsurface re-injection. The capacity will be 850,000 barrels of water per day (BWPD) and the project is scheduled to begin operation by mid 2008.

According to Siemens, produced water treatment plants are used around the world to meet discharge and injection water quality standards set by governing bodies of the respective countries. Saudi Aramco uses injected water to maintain reservoir pressure to maximise oil production. Presently, the system handles Arab heavy crude oil and formation water from the Safaniya oil field and Arab Medium crude oil from Zuluf oilfields. The formation water from both fields is processed and then re-injected.