Salt caverns for oil field waste disposal.

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2000 · Eye Environ.

OSTI ID:943022

Veil, J; Ford, J; Rawn-Schatzinger, V

Salt caverns used for oil field waste disposal are created in salt formations by solution mining. When created, caverns are filled with brine. Wastes are introduced into the cavern by pumping them under low pressure. Each barrel of waste injected to the cavern displaces a barrel of brine to the surface. The brine is either used for drilling mud or is disposed of in an injection well. Figure 8 shows an injection pump used at disposal cavern facilities in west Texas. Several types of oil field waste may be pumped into caverns for disposal. These include drilling muds, drill cuttings, produced sands, tank bottoms, contaminated soil, and completion and stimulation wastes. Waste blending facilities are constructed at the site of cavern disposal to mix the waste into a brine solution prior to injection. Overall advantages of salt cavern disposal include a medium price range for disposal cost, large capacity and availability of salt caverns, limited surface land requirement, increased safety, and ease of establishment of individual state regulations.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: FE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 943022
• Report Number(s): ANL/EA/JA-36787
• Journal Information: Eye Environ., Journal Name: Eye Environ. Journal Issue: 2 ; Summer 2000 Vol. 5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
AVAILABILITY
BRINES
CAPACITY
COST
DRILLING FLUIDS
DRILLS
INJECTION
INJECTION WELLS
LAND REQUIREMENTS
MIXING
OIL FIELDS
PRICES
PUMPING
PUMPS
RANGE
REGULATIONS
SAFETY
SALT CAVERNS
SALTS
SOLUTION MINING
SOLUTIONS
STIMULATION
SURFACES
TANKS
TEXAS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTES