Bulk Oil Water Separation

TORE®SEP BULK OIL/WATER SEPARATION

Increased levels of produced water can lead to front end bottlenecking, particularly in more mature reservoirs, often restricting oil production. Similarly, high (60%+) water cuts can restrict the development of marginal wells. The solution to both problems – and a highly effective contingency against inaccurate reservoir predictions in any field development – is Merpro’s revolutionary TORE®SEP compact bulk oil/water separator.

How it works

TORE®SEP is a self-contained vertical bulk oil/water separator that uses wellhead pressure to produce a rotational flow within the vessel.

The inverted TORE® inside the TORE®SEP bulk oil/water separation creates a powerful vortex, generating centrifugal forces that separate the inlet fluids, with the heavier components (water and solids) moving to the outer wall, while the less dense hydrocarbon components stay in the centre. The separated oil then flows through the TORE®’s central discharge pipe, while the bulk of the separated water is removed to produced water cleaning equipment, such as de-oiling hydrocyclones. Gas content from the inlet is removed under pressure control from the top of the vessel.

High performance

The TORE®SEP bulk oil/water separator can typically remove water cuts of 60% to 99% of incoming well fluids, while maintaining an oil in water discharge of approximately 1000 to 1500ppm. In combination with a de-oiling hydrocyclone on the water outlet, this can be reduced to below 20ppm oil in water to comply with environmental water disposal limits.

For even lower oil in water, a Merpro Micro Bubble induced gas flotation cell (Merpro MBF^TM) can be installed downstream – this will cut the oil in water content to less than 5ppm.

Benefits at a glance

• Enables operators to manage increased levels of produced water, providing front end de-bottlenecking of separation trains.
• Enables high water cut marginal wells to be developed.
• Dual purpose – TORE®SEP’s flexible design allows it to function both as a conventional first stage oil/water separator when water cut is low and as a bulk oil water separator when water cut increases, providing a life of field solution.
• Provides a valuable contingency against inaccurate reservoir predictions.
• Greatly reduced separation and residence times – just 90 seconds compared to 18 minutes in a conventional separator.
• Small and lightweight compared to conventional bulk oil/water separators.
• No moving parts, so low maintenance.
• Can handle gas and oil slugs.

Tried and tested

TORE®SEP bulk oil/water separator has been successfully deployed around the world by leading oil and gas companies. Part of Merpro’s award-winning range of produced water separation and treatment packages, it can be used in conjunction with PWT Hydrocyclones and Merpro MBF^TM.