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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Improving the performance of brine wells at Gulf Coast strategic petroleum reserve sites

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5328278· OSTI ID:5328278
At the request of the Department of Energy, field techniques were developed to evaluate and improve the injection of brine into wells at Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) sites. These wells are necessary for the disposal of saturated brine removed from salt domes where oil is being stored. The wells, which were accepting brine at 50 percent or less of their initial design rates, were impaired by saturated brine containing particulates that deposited on the sand face and in the geologic formation next to the wellbore. Corrosion of the brine-disposal pipelines and injection wells contributed to the impairment by adding significant amounts of particulates in the form of corrosion products. When tests were implemented at the SPR sites, it was found that the poor quality of injected brines was the primary cause of impaired injection; that granular-media filtration, when used with chemical pretreatment, is an effective method for removing particulates from hypersaline brine; that satisfactory injection-well performance can be attained with prefiltered brines; and that corrosion rates can be substantially reduced by oxygen-scavenging.
Research Organization:
California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
5328278
Report Number(s):
UCRL-52829
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English