Water cooling keeps oil facility in action

Water is a massive by-product when drilling for oil. The good news is that this water can be treated and purified for re-use. The bad news – for oil companies – is that the water must be cooled down before a water recycling plant will accept it. If the water isn’t cool enough, the oil company faces a hefty fine. An oil company in the USA was on the brink of shutdown because it was struggling to cool the water to an acceptable temperature. It needed robust cooling that would work during severe winters and extremely hot summers.

The water cooling process can be pretty complex. A team from Aggreko Process Services (APS) set to work designing a cooling system that could operate independently of the oil company’s permanent system. The design included a heat exchanger, plus 1,000 tonnes of cooling, circulation pumps and accessories. As waste water flowed through the system, heat was rejected into the atmosphere using evaporative cooling. The system was built to withstand outside temperatures ranging from minus 40°F (-4.4°C) to 100°F (37.7°C) – it would work reliably and continuously, no matter what.

The oil and gas facility had the assurance that high volumes of waste water could be cooled down enough to keep the water recycling plant happy. They avoided any financial penalties; but more importantly, they could keep the facility up and running. The system was robust enough to operate unattended, freeing the facility to focus on their field operations. Throughout our rental agreement, we helped them remain fully operational without the need to spend hefty amounts on additional utility infrastructure.