Terralog Technologies Inc. (TTI) has provided full scale SFI™ services for the safe disposal of NORM waste generated by a company in the Middle East. TTI was the operator of the NORM disposal facility. This project is the first large-scale deep well disposal-injection operation in the Middle East for NORM waste disposal.
A dedicated team was established by the client to analyze the levels of NORM generated by the company’s production operations, and to develop a comprehensive NORM management process. Six methods of NORM waste permanent disposal were considered, and SFI was established as the optimum option in terms of economic and risk assessments. SFI project field operations started in April 2015 and over 25,000 bbl of NORM contaminated waste material (including fluid, fines and sludge) have been injected in the first phase of the project.
Special emphasis was placed on the design, equipment selection and operating specifications to ensure safe handling of NORM, maintain wellbore integrity, maintain waste containment in the in-situ target interval, reduce operating costs, optimize formation response and maximize formation storage capacity. The following three stages are applied in order to ensure ‘Process Control’:
- Stage 1: Daily Assessment of Operating Data & Operating Issues
- Stage 2: Detailed Engineering Analyses of Formation Response
- Stage 3: Conceptual Model Development of In-situ SFI Mechanisms
Deep well disposal of NORM contaminated waste has proven to be a viable solution for this project; and all NORM waste streams have been safely handled during SFI operations