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Oilfield Waste Disposal Control

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Environmental Technology in the Oil Industry

Environmental control of waste generation in the oilfield processes, discussed in Chapters 2 and 4, may pro-actively reduce the waste volume and toxicity but cannot eliminate the waste altogether. Typically, in offshore operations the waste would be either disposed of on-site by discharging to the sea – as discussed in another section of this book, or reinjected to disposal wells – as discussed in this chapter, below. In the onshore operations, the waste fluids would be temporarily stored in earthen pits (on-site or off-site) before its ultimate disposal to the land or subsurface.

Land disposal of oilfield waste, known also as “pit closure by land treatment” may be performed using landspreading or landfarming. Lanspreading involves spreading the waste over the surface of the ground and tilling it into the soil. After this initial tilling, no further action is needed. In land farming, the soil is commonly processed for several seasons after the initial application of the waste. This additional processing may include adding fertilizers and tilling repeatedly to increase oxygen uptake in the soil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Petroleum Engineering, Louisiana State University, 70803-6417, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    A. K. Wojtanowicz

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  1. Oxoid Ltd., Hampshire, UK

    Stefan T. Orszulik

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Wojtanowicz, A.K. (2008). Oilfield Waste Disposal Control. In: Orszulik, S.T. (eds) Environmental Technology in the Oil Industry. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5472-3_5

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