Análisis del impacto y costos de los volúmenes de producción de agua en tres campos de la Gerencia Operativa para la implementación de mejores prácticas en el marco de los compromisos de sosTECnibilidad® de la empresa

Abstract

The hydrocarbon industry is one of the most important sectors within the economic structure of the country, and it is also relevant due to the impacts that its production processes generate at economic, social and environmental levels, one of them, which will be the subject of analysis in this project, is the integral management of water in production operations, taking into account that for each barrel of oil extracted, approximately 13 barrels of water are produced, a relationship that evidences the efforts that the industry must focus on in order to reduce costs, mitigate the impact of the water footprint and strive to make this sector economically and environmentally sustainable. When producing hydrocarbons in a field under exploitation, systems are used for the extraction of fluids to the surface, including hydrocarbons, which are not found naturally alone, but mostly mixed with water, so that when producing oil, water is also brought to the surface, which must be treated and disposed of without affecting ecosystems. The strategy to solve the environmental problem of water produced with oil is related to environmental, technical, operational, economic and legal aspects, which is why it must be planned, executed, evaluated and adjusted with an integral and multidisciplinary perspective (Pérez, 2009). Regarding the solution associated with the integrated management of water in three fields of the Operational Management, a review was made related to the costs of fluid production and alternatives for the disposal of water resources in order to identify options that allow an optimization of costs and/or use of water. Among the main results obtained from the implementation of some of the water disposal alternatives is that through injection the recovery factor for the field is improved, the environmental impact is reduced due to the disposal of the resource in a different site from the producing formation, energy consumption is reduced, as well as the reduction of water catchment in water bodies.