Petroleum Development Oman has awarded SUEZ a Design Build Own Operate and Maintain (DBOOM) contract for the treatment of 40,000m3 of wastewater produced by oil fields located in Rima, about 700kms South of the country’s capital city of Muscat.
The €120 million 20-year contract will see the implementation of alternative techniques to treat and dispose of oily wastewater generated during the extraction and recovery of oil. The production of one barrel of oil produces five to ten barrels of water which all needs to be cleaned. To ensure that this water is treated and disposed safely without harming the environment, SUEZ will implement a treatment system to avoid deep well aquifers contamination, reduce energy consumption and enhance biodiversity.
The contract will see the construction of wetland systems and evaporation ponds covering more than 400 hectares. A series of basins will be built and seeded with different species of algae. The oily water will be circulating through these basins and purified by biological actions. Once cleaned, the water will be disposed into 300 hectares ponds to be naturally evaporated.
This natural and environmentally friendly treatment system will avoid the disposal of hydrocarbon-polluted produced water in the deep well aquifers. It will also significantly reduce the oilfield’s carbon footprint with 180 T of avoided carbon dioxide emissions equivalents (CO2e) per day, or 65.7 KT per year. It will also generate 82 GWh savings in energy per year, compared to the conventional, energy-intensive disposal method of pumping the water into deep aquifers under high pressure. Additionally, this project will enhance biodiversity in the desert and create a habitat for wildlife species providing sustainable living conditions for flora and fauna.
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