During 2012, we took important steps to improve water treatment at our operations in Thailand.
As the offshore oil and gas industry in Thailand has matured, managing the water produced from operations has become a focus of attention. Produced water management in an offshore environment requires innovation in processing equipment as well as management of the subsurface.
Existing environmental law broadly prohibits the discharge of produced water to the Gulf of Thailand. Water produced in most parts of the Gulf contains mercury and, despite government regulations, the mercury content in sea water near some third-party facilities can be high.
We have an interest in the Bongkot field in the Gulf of Thailand. The Bongkot North processing platform was installed more than 15 years ago and, as such, has minimal produced water treatment facilities. However, robust procedural controls and a tight maintenance regime implemented on the produced water treatment and re-injection system have ensured that water is never disposed of overboard. The field produces some 23 000 barrels of water per day, all of which is re-injected into the reservoir after minimal treatment.
In Thailand, we and our joint venture partners installed a 20 000 tonne fixed production platform to develop the Bongkot South field.
While a minimal water treatment facility like the one on Bongkot North would have been sufficient to meet legal requirements, we exceeded these and installed a best-in-class produced water treatment and re-injection facility.
Through focused engineering, the team achieved the goal of zero overboard produced water disposal. Produced water is cleaned and re-injected to shallow low-pressure reservoir sands through injection pumps. The mercury is collected and shipped to shore before being exported to Germany for onward processing. This approach avoids contamination and makes this the most environmentally friendly method of managing produced water in the area.