Clariant Oil Services Improves Environmental Profile of Demulsifier on UK Platform

Benefits

• Improved overall chemical environmental legal compliance; PHASETREAT 6158 does not carry substitution warning 
• Reduced environmental impact; oil-in-water quality improved by 46%
• Lower dose rate of PHASETREAT 6158 provides cost savings whilst delivering improved environmental profile

Background

An offshore platform owned by a major producer in the UK sector of the North Sea has historically had problems with separation due to heavy crude and low process temperature. The oil-in-water quality has always been poor; however, because water injection availability was traditionally 99%, there had been little environmental impact. But the overboard oil to sea discharge consent is low (30 mg/Kg), with risk of financial penalty if exceeded. The high oil-in-water content in injection water also increases the potential for the water injection wells to be fouled, reducing injectivity, with the potential to reduce overall crude production. The incumbent product had a substitution warning and had been in use for more than five years. 

Clariant Oil Services Solutions and Value Delivered

Initial testing using existing products identified a potential replacement that was environmentally friendly, yet field trials showed it to be less efficient. Consequently, Clariant Oil Services developed a new environmentally-acceptable demulsifier, PHASETREAT 6158, specifically for this platform.

Field testing was carried out under different process conditions to confirm efficiency and optimize dose rate prior to full field use. Results demonstrated that the oil-in-water quality improved from an average of 50 mg/kg to 27 mg/kg, with PHASETREAT 6158 maintaining export BS&W below the specification of 0.5 % whilst reducing the dose rate from 30 ppm to 20 ppm.

Following full field use of PHASETREAT 6158, the oil-in-water has been further reduced to 15 mg/Kg.

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