Muscat - Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) may consider setting up biological water cleaning processes similar to the Nimr reed-bed project in oilfields in the south of Oman.
Speaking to Muscat Daily on the sidelines of the Asset Integrity Management Summit at Grand Hyatt Muscat on Monday, Raoul Restucci, managing director of PDO, said that the company will look to replicate, with some required variations, the model in the southern oilfields.
He said, "The Nimr reed bed is a fantastic project which we intend to expand. The solutions will vary, depending on the region, because of the changes in salinity. In the northern fields the salinity is substantially greater and the reed plants could not cope with it. In the southern fields, we can probably have a number of similar models. But each location offers a different challenge in terms of contaminants, salinity and mercury and oil content in produced water, so we have to find a dedicated solution for each area."
"There will be a number of areas where we can apply the lessons learnt from the Nimr project. But for the moment the big scope is in Nimr where we are handling 600,000 barrels of water per day and there is an opportunity to handle another 1mn barrels. Going forward, we are looking at three more phases of expansion of the Nimr project," added Restucci.
PDO's Nimr reed-bed project has transformed 2.4mn sq m of desert land in Nimr into a lush green expanse. This was achieved by planting 2mn reeds to absorb oil and other contaminants from produced water, which comes out of the ground while extracting hydrocarbons.
© Muscat Daily 2013
