OriginClear Inc., a provider of water treatment solutions, announced that Cobalt Aqua Control LLC (Cobalt) recently shipped its first commercial sale of 15 barrels of an injectable crude oil sweetening liquid, produced with OriginClear technology, to an oil operator in south Texas.
Cobalt is a developer of oil and gas technology and remediation solutions based in Houston, Texas. OriginClear licensed its advanced oxidation technology to Cobalt, and, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, has a significant membership interest in Cobalt. Cobalt’s process produces a liquid that can significantly improve oil recovery, reduce corrosive gas in the crude stream and increase overall ROI for operators.
Known as H2S-Neutralizer, this injectable liquid has demonstrated an improvement in oil recovery ratios, as evidenced by a stable increase in wellhead pressure. In addition, H2S-N has been shown to reduce hydrogen sulfide concentration in the crude stream.
“In the first field trial we did with H2S-N, we were able to increase wellhead pressure in a gas well from an unstable 20 psi to an average 40 psi for a six-month period, said William Germano Jr., cofounder and manager of Cobalt Aqua Control. “Working with OriginClear will help oil and gas operators get more value out of their production, with minimal environmental impact.”
In addition to wellhead pressure testing, other tests were performed with crude oil contaminated with hydrogen sulfide, a highly corrosive gas that helps cause crude oil to become “sour” and lose value in the market. In field tests, hydrogen sulfide was measured from a 200 ppm concentration down to below readable value.
“The market imposes a penalty for sour crude of about $13 billion annually,” said Jean-Louis Kindler, president of OriginClear Technologies. “With oil prices still very low, producers are eager for any solution to the problem.”
Reducing hydrogen sulfide in crude oil can not only improves the value of crude by 8% to 10%, but also worker safety and logistics because containers and pipelines require frequent maintenance when used with crude oil contaminated with as little as 5 ppm of hydrogen sulfide.
OriginClear first announced in November of 2015 that its electro-oxidation technology can remove 96% of bacteria and 97% of hydrogen sulfide from produced water without chemicals. Results were reported after lab and field testing on produced water from the Eagle Ford shale and further validated in the recent Cobalt tests.
Source: OriginClear
