GE Technology to Recycle up to 98 Percent of Produced Water at Italian Oil Field

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GE Technology to Recycle up to 98 Percent of Produced Water at Italian Oil Field

The crude oil production site at the Tempa Rossa oil field in Corleto Perticara, in the Basilicata region of southern Italy, will use GE's (GE:NYSE) advancedevaporatorandzero liquid discharge (ZLD)technology to recycle up to 98 percent of produced water. Total E &P Italia S.p.A. has six wells in the Tempa Rossa oil field, and GE will provide the technology to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor Maire Tecnimont S.p.A, which is overseeing the development of the project for Total E &P Italia. The announcement was made duringIFAT Entsorga 2014, the world's leading trade show for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management, taking place May 5-9, 2014, in Munich.

As one of the most important oil fields in Italy, the Tempa Rossa project, along with the nearby Val d'Agri oil field, will create enough oil to meet approximately 10 percent of Italian oil needs.

The execution of the work will comply with the most severe requirements in terms of health, safety and environment for a facility of this nature in Italy. The Tempa Rossa oil field needed an innovative and energy-efficient solution to treat the water and meet stringent discharge regulations, and GE's technology was deemed the best technology for recycling water at this facility.

The project marks the first application of GE-produced water treatment in Europe, leveraging on GE's wide experience in produced water treatment in Canada, the United States and Australia. When producing crude oil, the water that is pumped as a byproduct is called produced water. Oil wells can produce enormous quantities of water, and this produced water needs to be treated or hauled away from the site. At the Tempa Rossa oil field, GE's ZLD crystallizers will demineralize the produced water, which will be available for firefighting. The remaining brine will be concentrated into solid salt crystals for disposal. The ZLD technology will enable Maire Tecnimont SpA to meet new national environmental regulations governing water discharge.

Italy had become increasingly dependent on oil and natural gas imports. New oil fields, such as Tempa Rossa, will enable Italy to become less reliant on imports, improving the export/import commercial balance. Once fully operational in 2016, Total E &P Italia's six wells in Tempa Rossa will have a daily production capacity of approximately 50,000 barrels of crude oil, 230,000 m(3) of natural gas, 240 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and 80 tons of sulfur.

GE will provide two identical produced water treatment units including de-oiling, forced circulation brine concentration, evaporation and crystallization for ZLD. It is a complex process in which GE's multiple-effect steam-driven units will be used for concentration and crystallization. Vapors generated during the evaporation process are condensed in GE energy air condensers and air coolers to meet the required temperature for demineralized water production and firefighting reuse.

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