Disposal of Crude Contaminated Soil Through Slurry Fracture Injection at the West Coyote Field in California

Abstract

Thw papeYWE, selected for pr~eiitation b~an-SPEPrcgram Ccmmltee fdlowmg revmw of mfcmnation contained m an abstract sutmitted by the author(s) Contenk of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the Socmty of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s) The material, as presented, does not ncassarily reflect any posibon of the Scclety of Petroleum Engineer% Its offtcers, or members Papers presented at SPE meebngs are subject to publtcabon review by Edltonal Cunmittess of the Society of Petroleum Engmee!s Electromc reprodudaon, distrh.tion, or storage of any pa!t of this paper for ccfnmeraal purposes wthout the Vmtten mn$ent of the .%aety of Petroleum Engineers is proh!bked Penmsslon to reproduce m print is restricted to an abstract C4 not more than 3X words, Illustrabons may not be copied The abstract must contain conspicuous acknr?++fedgment of where and by whom the paper was presented Write Llbranan, SPE PO Box 833836, Richardson, W 75063-3636, U S A , fax 01.972-952-9435

Geological engineering criteria for deep solids injection

“…The solid waste was oily surface sand and soil contaminated from oil production operations over the life of the field (exploitation started in the 1920s). Approximately 50,000 bbl of contaminated soil and fresh water were successfully injected during a period of 3 weeks (Sipple-Srinivasan et al, 1998) in an environmentally sound and economical (US$8.00/bbl of slurry) manner. Table 6 shows the target reservoir scored 103 of 125 points and belongs to the above-average category.…”

Environmental Management, Cost Management, and Asset Management for High-Volume Oil Field Waste Injection Projects

“…About 300,000 bbls (50,000 m 3 ) of sand, tank bottoms, drilling mud, and water slurry was injected during the 3 month period shown, with continuous monitoring of formation response. Figure 3 presents formation pressure response during injection of crude contaminated surface soil (Srinivasan et al, 1998), showing excellent pressure decline to initial formation pressure at the end of each daily injection episode. This is the type of ideal pressure response desired to maintain long-term injectivity and well life.…”

Slurry Fracture Injection of Solid and Liquid Heavy Oil Wastes

“…The high pressures necessary for fracture initiation and propagation dissipate quickly, leaving no long-term remnant pressures, and the solid portions of the slurry remain close to the wellbore, permanently immobilized by the weight of the overburden. Further discussion of basic SFI technology can be found in Dusseault et al, 1994 andSrinivasan et al, 1998.…”

“…SFI safety has been proven through a series of nine projects conducted over the last four years Sipple-Srinivasan et al 1997;Srinivasan et al 1998;and Dusseault et al 1998). The results show that the technology provides exceptionally high short-term and long-term environmental security, greatly reducing the liability exposure of the waste generating company, and meets all of the criteria listed above.…”

“…Road asphalts on which PCBs have been spilled have generally been removed by scraping, with subsequent disposal in a high quality surface landfill. These materials can be safely disposed using SFI, and this has already been demonstrated in a hydrocarbon contaminated soil injection project within the greater Los Angeles area (Srinivasan et al 1998). A further advantage of SFI is that at most refinery sites in North America, there are suitable SFI target strata underneath the site to accommodate the surface wastes.…”