Using an osmotic membrane pressure actuator (OMPA) for enhanced oil and gas recovery – the concept

The energy demand in our modern society is continuously rising, which clearly shows that fossil fuels will for many decades still play an important role – oil and natural gas are important energy resources in this picture. Nevertheless, oil and natural gas reserves are limited, and it is therefore a prioritized task to produce more oil and gas from existing wells and reservoirs for better exploitation of the resources. One of the challenges in the exploitation of gas and oil wells is often the heterogeneity of the reservoir, which increases the probability of water production, (i.e. increased water content in the hydrocarbon stream) originating from formation water or injected water. Produced water may cause unstable and reduced production rate which in turn gives a reduced gas and oil recovery. Technology developments over the past decades have made it possible to drill sophisticated wells for increased reservoir exposure and increased recovery. This includes long horizontal sections and multi-branched wells which have been the most important steps towards better utilization of the reservoir due to higher rate of return than for conventional wells, lower production costs and reduced number of platforms and wells per field.1,2 Handling of produced water is a major challenge in oil and gas production. Global produced water production of onshore and offshore was in 2009 estimated at about 250 million barrels per day, while produced oil was around 80 million barrels per day.3 Produced water is considered the largest volumetric waste stream in the oil and gas production processes. Produced water contains some organic hydrocarbons and