The VM alliance, which comprises Halliburton, Fabricom and Sørco, has won the main contract for the modification work on the Heidrun platform to allow water injection.
The contract includes engineering work, procurement, construction, installation and completion. Plans call for the modifications to be finished in October 2003.
Seawater and produced water will be reinjected in the Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea to provide pressure support for the production wells. Two modules will be installed on the platform for this purpose.
One of the modules will contain three water injection pumps, while the other will remove the sulphate that occurs naturally in seawater, before the water is injected into the reservoir.
The sulphate must be removed since there is a high concentration of barium in the Heidrun reservoir. When this metallic element reacts with sulphate it may result in the formation of deposits and tight wells.
The injection of produced water also provides environmental gains, reports Knut Gjertsen, who is in charge of the water injection project.
Heidrun currently produces 63,000 barrels of water per day – future amounts could be as high as 190,000 barrels. The objective is to return almost all the produced water to the subsurface.