REDUCING PRODUCED WATER WITH DENSITY AND CONDUCTIVITY METERS

The work performed was an attempt to reduce the amount of produced water by using the well bore as an oil-water separator. The use of a flow meter, density meter and/or conductivity meter controlling a pumping unit would be used to achieve this goal. The natural physical differences between oil and water are easily detected inside the production stream with proper equipment. A coriolis mass meter, conductivity meter, data recorder, timer and relays were purchased and housed in a purpose-built field cabinet. The metering unit was hooked to four wells over the course of the project, Spencer No.8, Applegate Gray Unit No.1 (AGU No.1), Vollmer No.4 and Mohr No.1. All are located in the Illinois Basin, three with artificial lift pumps and one flowing well. Depth of producing formations ranges from a maximum of 846.13 m (2776 ft) to minimum of 316.69 m (1039 ft). All wells were completed in one formation of Mississippian or Pennsylvanian age. The data recorded were analyzed to determine what events could be detected. Events included pure oil or higher oil-cut fluid reaching the pump or reaching the metering equipment, the pump operating under capacity, and the well ''pumped down''. Based on how much oil and water is present in a fluid column, the pressure the fluid column imparts on a formation can be calculated. By knowing the amount of oil and water in a well bore and the maximum height water can reach, production equipment can be configured to only produce oil. However, the configuration may not be profitable. It became apparent during the course of this research the wells tested do not have an oil-water contact deep enough so traditional pumping equipment can be configured to recover oil by the proposed method. This method may work more successfully in deeper basins. Other interesting anomalies were also detected in the data