OREANDA-NEWS. OAO Saratovneftegaz specialists (OAO NK RussNeft subsidiary in Saratov region) address the problem of produced water separation and knock-out. This objective has been a priority for the company in course of the recent years. Operating preliminary water knock-out (PWKO) units close to the production wells allows to sufficiently reduce the labor costs and decrease the equipment used for the production. It also helps to avoid big capital investments into the gathering and transport infrastructure at the field resulting in a significant economical effect.

In particular, the produced water knock-out technology based on a flow-dividing valve applied at the producing wells 108 and 109 of Mayakovskoye field, producing about 500m3 of water per day, saves around 900 kilowatt/hour.

Flow-dividing valve at Kvasnikovskoye field automated gas metering unit, installed in August 2014, provides knock-out of 690 m3 of produced water per day saving more than 1160 kilowatt/hour on the average daily basis.

Such nonconventional know-how technologies were also applied at Uritskoye, Belokamennoye, Limano-Grachevskoye, Yazykovskoye, Ilovlinskoye and other oilfields of OAO Saratovneftegaz where the knock-out of 400-1000 m3 of water per day does consume additional power. More than 20 flow dividing valves have been installed and are in operation now.

Application of preliminary water knock-out units both saves great costs on the electrical power and chemical agents used by the company in oil production and treatment, and ensures adequate operability of oilfield equipment and pipelines.

The PWKO activities performed from 2012 to 2014 allowed OAO Saratovneftegaz to save around 1000 thousand kilowatt/hour of electrical power.