PNZ Enhanced Oil Recovery Pilot, Middle East

What is it?

A fully integrated water treatment plant to enhance the recovery of heavy oil at the Wafra oil field between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The facility consists of de-oiling and de-gasification pretreatment facilities, as well as two seeded slurry brine concentrators that produce steam generator feedwater.

Who is responsible?

GE provided the brine concentrators, a three-stage oil/water separation system, a de-gasifier, a vapour recovery system and a heat integration system. Kharafi National was responsible for the construction.

What makes it special?

• The Partitioned Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait is a harsh and remote operating environment. In order to enhance the recovery of heavy oil at the Wafra oil field, Kuwait Gulf Oil Company and Saudi Arabian Chevron needed access to large volumes of high-purity water suitable for steam generation. The facility supplied by GE and Kharafi recycles untreated oily sour produced water originating from a carbonate oil reservoir, producing up to 35,000 barrels per day of high-purity distillate for use as high-pressure boiler feed water.

• The process uses just 5% of the energy normally required for single-effect steam evaporation.

• The project is the first successful large-scale produced water evaporator treatment system used for steam generation in an enhanced oil recovery application in the Middle East.