Abstract
A water flood program is required for Kuwait’s Northern and Western fields to maintain reservoir pressures. The program requires large amounts of Seawater Effluent, GC-17 Effluent and Zubair Aquifer injection water treated with oil field chemicals. Injection water that does not meet water quality specifications is disposed of in disposal pits and left to evaporate into the atmosphere. However, recent environmental regulations set by the country’s Environmental Public Authority (EPA) limit the disposal of the off-specification waters into open pits. These regulations require that operators determine alternative methods of disposal of off-specification water or to treat the injection waters with environmentally friendly chemicals. To meet this requirement, the operator is considering the use of “green” corrosion inhibitors for this system. Accordingly, a laboratory performance evaluation was conducted on four green corrosion inhibitors prior to field trial to ensure the products met minimum requirements. The results indicated that the green inhibitors were sensitive to fluid shear and the presence of hydrogen sulphide. The testing enabled the selection of one green inhibitor for sweet higher fluid shear and one green inhibitor for sour conditions.