SPE 68715
Application of Produced Water Technology Practices in Indonesia Upstream Petroleum
Industry
R. Priatna, Pertamina-BPPKA, and S.B. Wusono, Conoco Indonesia Inc. Ltd., and R.I. Bledoeg, Gulf Indonesia
Resources Ltd.
Copyright 2001, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and
Exhibition held in Jakarta, Indonesia, 17–19 April 2001.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300
words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
Abstract
Produced water still makes up the largest waste stream in up
stream hydrocarbon (E & P) industry in Indonesia. Processing
and disposing of produced water can make the difference
between making a profit and losing money.
Understanding produced water and its unique nature in
Indonesia is essential in designing and operating treatment
systems. The regulatory requirement is still growing here, and
continuous inputs on best practicable technologies available to
the regulatory bodies should be maintained and enhanced.
Throughout the history of Petroleum production, since
more than 100 years ago, gravity settling tank is the only best
known in industry, but recent improvements in processing
technologies are added into the old installations. More
sophisticated separating systems have been installed and prove
to meet the less stringent regulatory requirements. In offshore
operations, especially in environmentally sensitive waters,
practice with hydro-cyclone technology has been applied.
While in onshore, injection to disposal wells are the safe and
environmentally sound technology can be applied.
Introduction
Produced water refers to the water brought up from the
hydrocarbon bearing strata during the extraction of oil and
gas, and can include formation water, injection water, and any
(waste) chemicals added downhole or during the oil/water
separation processes. Produced water always contains
dispersed and dissolved oil. Most oilfield waters contain a
variety of dissolved inorganic and organic compounds,
suspended solids (formation fines, sand, scale and corrosion
products) and dispersed oil. The major soluble inorganic
constituents are sodium, calcium, magnesium, chloride,
carbonate/bicarbonate and sulfates. The chloride concentration
can range from less than 10,000 mg/lt to more than 200,000
mg/lt. Some oilfield waters contain concentration in excess of
10 mg/lt of aluminum, ammonium, iron, lead, manganese,
silicon and zinc. Large quantities of dissolved gases are also
present in oil/gas field brines. Most of these gases are
hydrocarbons; however, other gases such as carbon dioxide,
nitrogen, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide are present.
In offshore operation, produced water is treated to remove
dispersed oil and is disposed off overboard in accordance with
regulatory guidelines. In Indonesia, the treated produced water
meeting regulatory guidelines of less than 75 PPM oil content
in existing facilities and 50 PPM oil content in new facilities
can be discharged overboard. While in onshore, oil content to
be discharged should be less than 35 PPM for existing
facilities or less than 25 PPM for new facilities.
Produced Water Handling
In the oil field industry, as the field matures, the water
production will increase accordingly. Consequently, the
operating cost for produced water handling will increase
significantly subject to the difficulties of oil-water separation.
Handling of produced water is divided in two actions. First
is mechanical treatment and second is chemical treatment. On
mechanical treatment there will be mechanical separation. The
force of mechanical treatment usually is gravitation (G). On
the conventional mechanical treatment the force is only about
1-G. while, on chemical side, the cost for produced water
handling will be increased relating to the produced water
volume. So, by increasing the volume of the water the total
cost for having one clean barrel oil will increase.
In offshore oil industry, one of the factors that influence to
capital investment is the capacity of the platform itself. The
capacity of the platform will be subject to the number and
capacity of mechanical equipment that are on the platform.
The smaller capacity of mechanical equipment will influence
to the economic analysis of building a platform.
The conventional produced water treatment is very big in
size. Thus, it will increase the investment cost accordingly. On
the other hand, the Government wants to have more clean
2 R. PRIATNA, S.B. WUSONO, R.I. BLEDOEG
produced water. So, technology that is environmentally
friendly and cost economic will be the first choice.
Mechanical Separation. On the conventional produced water
handling technology there are a lot of disadvantages, some of
them being:
• The need for more space, heavier equipment, which
results in a higher cost investment.
• The separation force is only about one G.
• The platform movement influences the quality of
produced water effluent.
• It is difficult to put other equipment when we intend to
increase the produced water handling capacity.
• When there is surge flow, the stabilization will take time.
• Orientation will significantly affect the performance.
• The need to have more chemicals to achieve the same
quality of produced water effluent.
• It takes longer residence time.
• The increase in moving parts that usually will give
significant additional maintenance cost.
• The need to have close monitoring.
In order to solve the above problems, we use cyclone
technology. The separation of oil and water using cyclone
technology is called hydro-cyclone.
Hydro-cyclone operates with specially designed
equipment. The vortex will give a high force for separating the
oil and water. The force of the separation is on hundreds of G
basis, compared to 1-G for conventional equipment. The
concentric reducing and the fine taper accelerate the fluid. The
higher density of liquid will be forced by centrifugal
acceleration to the wall of liner. The lighter liquid will be
moved to the center of the liner and goes to the reject port.
Advantages of Hydro-cyclone (F type).
Hydro-cyclone is compact equipment. This compact
equipment needs less space than the conventional equipment.
A conventional produced water treatment for 120000 BWPD
handling needs about 1725 square feet whilst for the same
capacity of hydro-cyclone only about 192 square feet is
needed (1). In addition, the hydro-cyclone is lighter in weight
than the conventional water treatment. Since the conventional
treatment is only working on 1-G, then the residence time is
very important to the quality of the performance. On 120000
BWPD, it will take about 510000 pounds of conventional
water treatment compared to 90000 pounds of hydro-cyclone
(1).
Orientation. Since hydro-cyclone is working on hundreds
basis of G then the orientation of hydro-cyclone is not
influencing the performance of hydro-cyclone. It can be put
either vertical or horizontal. In case it is planned to allow for
more water handling capacity in the future, this advantage
enables us to put the hydro-cyclone into whatever space is
available.
Set the liner as needed and increase the capacity. By
increasing the age of the field, the produced water will
SPE 68715
increase. On hydro-cyclone technology, the performance can
be set up subject to the volume of water that will be handled.
On low water production, the number of liners can be reduced,
and then on high produced water, the number of liners can be
added accordingly. Since the weight of hydro-cyclone is not
heavier enough than the conventional one, it is very possible
to add a further hydro-cyclone unit to the platform when the
water production increases higher than the original capacity.
Platform movement will not influence to the hydro-
cyclone performance. Hydro-cyclone works on hundreds of G
basis on the oil and water separation. So, any disturbance that
has low force will not influence the performance of hydro-
cyclone e.g. platform movement.
Back to normal quickly. Since the residence time of
hydro-cyclone is in seconds then when there is a surge flow, it
will be quicker to return to normal compared to the
conventional system. The conventional equipment may take
hours even days to return to normal condition.
Less maintenance. There are limited moving part on
hydro-cyclone system. So, it will give less maintenance
compared to the conventional treatment which has more
moving part.
Need for less chemical. On the conventional separation,
the mechanical separation is only 1-G. Therefore, besides
needing more residence time; the utilization of chemical is
absolutely needed. On hydro-cyclone where the force is very
high then the consumption of the chemical will be less than
the conventional technology.
Disadvantages of Hydro-cyclone (F type).
Plug of the reject port. The 2-mm reject port is very easily
plugged up on certain conditions. When there is a solid and a
jelly material that going into the reject port then it can plug up.
If the port of the liner becomes plugged then there will be no
oil and water separation through this liner, and when there are
a lot of liners that are plugged, the separation is not achieved.
Sand deposition & opening the shell cover. When there is
not good solid separation on the upstream equipment of hydro-
cyclone, there will be a lot of sand deposition in the hydro-
cyclone shell. Then we have to open the shell and take out the
sand. Subject to the volume of sand deposited, the time for
taking out the sand may take a considerable number of hours.
Off course when the opening the cover is frequent, it can make
the cover shell loose.
Difficulties to have proper water clarifier. On certain
applications, hydro-cyclone does not need any chemical
injection. But on some conditions, the water clarifier
utilization is absolutely needed. The main problem on having
the water clarifier is having a water clarifier that will give the
best water quality and not create too tight floc. The normal
water clarifier usually gives quite tight floc and it will block or
plug the 2-mm reject port. When this happens quite often, it
will take man-hours to back flush the reject port. Sometime we
have to open the shell cover and break the plug from the inside
of the liner.
SPE 68715 APPLICATION OF PRODUCED WATER TECHNOLOGY PRACTICES IN INDONESIA UPSTREAM PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 3

Onshore Oil Industry

In onshore oil industry in Indonesia, one of the available
technologies used to minimize environmental impact caused
by produced water is injection through disposal wells.
Sometimes this technology is applied also for reservoir
pressure maintenance.
Selection of disposal point might be chosen from
abandoned wells or new constructed wells. Should a disposal
will be implemented into a new constructed well, injection
must be done to a specific formation layer below aquifer zone
covered by cap rock (permeability must be low). One of the
advantages of this technology is produced water and/or spent
chemicals can be disposed totally. The most important thing
that must be considered is the facility should be maintained
routinely in order to have the injection run well or the
reservoir pressure is maintained and kept at the level required.
Related to the purpose of reservoir pressure maintenance,
this application can only be done for oil wells. Reservoir
pressure of wells producing gas can not be maintained by
injecting produced salt water.
Based on the result of empirical study, cost of disposal into
abandoned well is relatively lower than into a new constructed
type. While cost of construction for a new disposal well
slightly lower than a cost of a new oil well drilling.

Conclusions
1. Justification to determine limit of oil content in
produced water for offshore oil production, 75 PPM for
existing facilities or 50 PPM for new facilities, is based on
empirical study that because of dilution by sea water, those
limits are still acceptable to the carrying capacity of the sea.
2. The hydro-cyclone is very useful and worthy for
offshore operations. Total cost e.g. space, maintenance and
investment cost lower than the conventional one. Additional
cost for increasing of produced water-handling will also be
less than the conventional.

References
1. Choi, M.S.: "Hydro-cyclone Produced Water Treatment
for Offshore Developments", SPE 20662, New Orleans,
LA, Sept 23-26, 1990.
2. Rosie, Kerstin.: "Conoco's Water Treatment Upgraded
with Hydro-cyclones", Ocean Industry, Dec 1991/Jan
1992.
3. Meldrum, N.: "Hydro-cyclone: A Solution to Produced
Water Treatment", OTC 5594, Houston, Texas, April 27-
30, 1987.
4. Conoco Specialty Product, Inc.: "Vortoil Manual".
5. Leecraft, J.: "A Dictionary of Petroleum Terms, 3rd
Edition", Petroleum Extension Service, Division of
Continuing Education, The University of Texas at Austin,
Texas, 1983.
6. Ministerial Decree of Environment of Republic of
Indonesia No.KEP-42/MENLH/II/94: "Baku Mutu
Limbah Cair Kegiatan Minyak Bumi dan Gas".
4 R. PRIATNA, S.B. WUSONO, R.I. BLEDOEG SPE 68715

Hydro-cyclone Performance (1)

12

10

8
PPM

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Month

Hydro-cyclone Performance (2)

12

10

8
PPM

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Month