RWL Water wins $100M Colombian contract with Pacific Rubiales
by Canadian Manufacturing Daily Staff
Deal includes design and construction, 10-year operation of produced water desalination plant
NEW YORK—Canadian oil and gas firm Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. has awarded New York-based RWL Water Group a $100-million water contract in Colombia.
According to the water solutions provider, the contract—awarded to RWL subsidiary Nirosoft Industries Ltd.—consists of the design and construction (EPC) of a produced water desalination plant, as well as the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the plant for 10 years.
The plant will be located at Pacific Rubiales’ oil field in the Meta region of Puerto Gaitan, Colombia, and will produce 500,000 barrels of water per day.
The produced water, a by-product of the petroleum extraction, will be treated by the Nirosoft water purification system to meet environmental discharge requirements, the company announced.
Nirosoft’s treatment process will replace the current process whereby produced water is disposed by deep well injection, and will provide desalinated water for agricultural use to grow trees, which RWL says will alleviate costs and improve sustainability standards.
To develop a custom solution for this project, Nirosoft operated a pilot plant unit on-site for six months and optimized the process design on the basis of the test results.
The final plant design has addressed significant technological challenges involving the removal of hydrocarbons, and will include various pre-treatment stages with innovative separation and filtration technologies, prior to the high recovery reverse osmosis system.
The treatment plant will further limit environmental impact by minimizing brine rejection with a final sludge treatment, according to RWL.
