Geologic Aspects of The Brine Pollution Problem
Authors: Conselman Frank B. 
Published: December 2007

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for the 42nd Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Houston, Tex., Oct. 1–4, 1967. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Introduction

In recent years not only the oil and industry but also the general public has become increasingly aware of the importance—in fact, the necessity—of finding satisfactory controls for oilfield waters as a form of industrial waste. It is most appropriate that the Society of Petroleum Engineers should dedicate a portion of its technologic interest to the problems of brine pollution, because both the problems and their solutions fall squarely within the purview of petroleum engineering.

Salt water has been a close associate of the petroleum industry since the days of Colonel Drake. It will be recalled that the first oil found in this country was discovered unintentionally, in connection with drilling for salt water, and the oil and gas, not the brine, were the impurities. This situation has of course long been reversed.

In fairness to salt water a few preliminary concessions should perhaps be made. We are indebted to subsurface brines not only for some of our original discoveries, but also in many cases for the commercial entrapment of oil and gas. We depend on hydrodynamic drive or water compressibility for much of our reservoir energy, and we use injected oilfield waters as the chief medium of pressure transmission in secondary recovery. Brines are useful occasionally as sources of rare chemicals, and now and then they are used as temporary road binders, although not without side effects. Salt water is also occasionally useful as a fire extinguisher. This virtually exhausts the list of nice things that can be said about oilfield brine; the fact is that as far as the oil-producing industry is concerned it is a nuisance, an expense, a liability, and a general pain in the neck.

STATUS OF PROBLEM

Salt water is corrosive to metals, toxic to vegetation, and highly deleterious to fresh waters. It ruins casing, kills crops and makes water unfit to drink for man and beast. All of us are aware of this, but only in recent years has population growth made this a matter of concern to the public and its political representatives, particularly as urbanization spreads to arid and semi-arid lands. At the same time, the increased production of brine in the United States, and its rapidly expanded use in water flooding under artificial pressures, have accentuated the size and breadth of the problem.