Recently, I learned from the OPEC Bulletin “World Oil Outlook 2023” that pure crude oil is not the initial item extracted from the ground in oil fields.
“When crude oil is pumped to the surface, saline deposit water always comes with it. Approximately 95% of what is pumped to the surface in Austria is usually actually water, while it is 75 percent in Romania and 30% in the Middle East. Oil production requires various surface facilities to process the extracted fluids, including separators, which separates oil and gas and water. Storage tanks which hold the separated oil and treatment facilities where impurities are removed from the crude oil before it is transported for refining.”
Further, “there are six specific means to separate water from oil and gas. as part of multi-stage process- namely separators, hydrocyclones, tanks, floatation, media filters and membranes. Separators rely on fluids having different densities, for example, enabling their separation in 10 minutes.”
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