Water injection systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9234413-B2
Application number	US-201013379745-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2010
Priority date	Jun 25, 2009
Publication date	Jan 12, 2016
Grant date	Jan 12, 2016

Abstract

A system comprising a well drilled into an underground formation comprising hydrocarbons; a production facility at a topside of the well; a water production facility connected to the production facility; wherein the water production facility produces water by removing some multivalent ions, then removing some monovalent ions, and then adding back some monovalent ions, and then injects the water into the well.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
removing some multivalent ions from water, wherein removing some multivalent ions
from water comprises removing some divalent cations;
removing some monovalent ions from water;
adding some monovalent ions to the water; and
injecting the water into an underground formation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processed water is recycled by being produced with oil and/or gas and separated, and then re-injected into the formation.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of aromatics, chlorinated hydrocarbons, other hydrocarbons, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or mixtures thereof are mixed with the processed water prior to being injected into the formation.

4. The methods of claim 1 , wherein the processed water is heated prior to being injected into the formation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein another material is injected into the formation after the processed water was injected.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the another material is selected from the group consisting of air, produced water, salt water, sea water, fresh water, steam, carbon dioxide, and/or mixtures thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processed water is injected from 10 to 100 bars above the reservoir pressure.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oil in the underground formation prior to water being injected has a viscosity from 0.1 cp to 10,000 cp.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the underground formation has a permeability from 5 to 0.0001 Darcy.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein input water has a total dissolved salts value of at least 15,000 parts per million, expressed as sodium chloride dissolved, prior to the removing any ions from the water.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein adding some monovalent ions to the water comprises mixing the water with at least one of seawater and produced water.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing some multivalent ions from the water comprises subjecting the water to at least one nanofilter.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein adding some monovalent ions to the water comprises mixing the water with a nanofilter permeate stream.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing some monovalent ions from the water comprises subjecting the water to at least one reverse osmosis membrane.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein adding some monovalent ions to the water comprises mixing the water with a reverse osmosis reject stream.

16. A method of preparing a high salinity water for injection in an enhanced oil recovery process, comprising:
removing some sulfates from the water;
selectively removing some divalent ions from the water;
selectively removing some monovalent ions from the water;
adding some monovalent ions to the water; and then
injecting the water into an underground oil containing formation.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising adding back in some of the removed divalent ions prior to injecting the water.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising adding some divalent ions to the water prior to injecting the water.

19. A method of preparing a high salinity water for injection in an enhanced oil recovery process, comprising:
removing some ions from the water with a nano-filtration process, wherein removing some ions from the water with a nano-filtration process comprises removing some divalent cations from the water;
removing some additional ions from the water with a reverse osmosis process;
adding some monovalent ions to the water; and then
injecting the water into an underground oil containing formation.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising adding back in some of the removed ions prior to injecting the water by adding a portion of a nano-filtration permeate stream and/or a portion of a reverse osmosis reject stream to the water.

Assignees

• Ayirala Subhash Chandra Bose
• Chin Robert Wing-Yu
• Matzakos Andreas Nicholas
• Uehara-Nagamine Ernesto
• Shell Oil Co

Inventors

• Ayirala Subhash Chandra Bose
• Chin Robert Wing-Yu
• Matzakos Andreas Nicholas
• Uehara-Nagamine Ernesto

Classifications

• E21B43/20 Primary

  Displacing by water · CPC title

• E21B21/068

  using chemical treatment · CPC title

• E21B43/40

  Separation associated with re-injection of separated materials {(E21B43/385 takes precedence)} · CPC title