Produced-Water Management Policy Developed for the Energy Sector of Trinidad and Tobago
Authors: Carpenter Chris 
Published: January 2022

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 200926, “A New Produced-Water Management Policy for the Energy Sector of Trinidad and Tobago,” by Tushara Maharaj, Ministry of Planning and Development, and Marc Rudder, SPE, and Vyshaia Singh, Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, et al., prepared for the 2020 SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section Energy Resources Conference, originally scheduled to be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 29 June–1 July. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

A produced-water (PW) management framework for the energy sector of Trinidad and Tobago is presented in the complete paper, forming part of an upstream-effluent management (UEM) policy. It addresses the minimization and ultimate elimination of treated and untreated PW discharge by use of an integrated management approach to ensure zero harmful discharge (ZHD) to the environment.

Introduction

Following implementation of the Water Pollution Rules of 2001, amended in 2007, companies operating in the upstream oil and gas industry encountered major challenges in achieving compliance with some of the parameters listed in the Second Schedule of the Water Pollution Rules. As a result, an informal committee was established in 2013 consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI), the Environmental Management Authority, and the Association of Upstream Operators of Trinidad and Tobago. Following these discussions, the SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section hosted an Applied Technology Workshop on oil and gas effluent dis-charge management in 2015.

At this workshop, general agreement was reached that the way forward was to request the establishment of a Cabinet-appointed committee to consider the issues and recommend solutions to the Cabinet. Consequently, the Cabinet approved the UEM Committee in 2016 to review issues related to the major effluent streams from the upstream industry and provide recommendations couched within a UEM Policy. The scope of the complete paper is limited to the aspects of the Cabinet-approved UEM policy as it relates to PW.

Methodology

All field data used to inform the UEM policy was accessed through archived yearly production data, environmental monitoring reports, and environmental impact assessments submitted to and logged at the MEEI. To fully comprehend the complexity of the PW waste stream and how to properly manage it, an extensive literature review was conducted.

For research into PW treatment technologies, consultations were held with several international developers to explore the best available technologies or best practicable environmental options (BPEO). These were supplemented by a review of technologies that could address pollutants of concern. A decision regarding the type of treatment option selected depended on many factors, including chemical composition of the inflow waste stream, desired outflow concentrations, volume of PW to be treated, and financial and spatial resources, especially for offshore facilities.