Managing Produced Water During the Energy Transition – A Panel Debate

Join us for a panel discussion on the huge topic of produced water on Wednesday 22^nd January 2025 at 6pm

In 2023 about 99 million tonnes of water was produced in the UKCS – along with 34 million tonnes of oil – for an average water cut of 72%. Some fields produce at over 95% water cut. Most of this water goes overboard – leading to 1600 tonnes of oil being discharged into the environment (source OEUK 2024 Environmental Insight).

Come and hear our panel discuss the issues and challenges that this presents – and the opportunities it creates for new technologies.

Our panel includes:

• An Operator representative (Murray Dick from EnQuest) to set the scene and explain the issues that these high water cuts present.
• Two equipment manufacturers (Neil Gourlay, Process Manager with NOV and Paul McAlister, APS - Adaptive Process Solutions) to discuss how physical equipment can help to clean up this water to reduce the environment discharges and ensure that Operators meet their environmental targets.
• A chemical company (Myles Jordan of Champion) to discuss how various chemicals can be used – both to shut off water downhole and to improve the separation of oil and water at the surface.
• An experienced Production Chemist (Stephen Heath from Production Chemistry Training/Creative Chemical Solutions Ltd) who has worked with these issues for much of his career.

Each panellist will speak for 5-10 minutes to give their perspective – and there will then be a moderated discussion with questions from the floor.

Biography:

Stephen Heath

Stephen holds a B.Sc Honours in Chemistry and Geology from Cardiff University College and a Pg.Dip in Instrumentation and Analytical Science from the University of Manchester. He has 35 years oil and gas production chemistry experience and has managed projects for both sandstone and carbonate fields.
His technical expertise includes flow assurance, scale, chemical analysis, produced water chemistry and management, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), corrosion, novel deployment techniques and Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS). He is also a recognised global subject matter expert (SME) in scale and production chemical analysis and has published 6 patents and ~140 papers and on scale, chemical analysis, production chemistry and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).
Stephen has held senior management roles in several chemical service companies as well as being the Lead Production Chemist at a European operator. He is currently a Director and the Principal Trainer at Production Chemistry Training Limited and is also the Managing Director and Principal Chemistry Consultant at Creative Chemical Solutions Ltd.

Myles Jordan

Myles is a subject matter expert for inorganic scale management with ChampionX. He has been with the company more than 27 years.

Myles holds a BSc in Geology/Chemistry and Ph.D. in Geochemistry his current interests include the development of topside/downhole inorganic scale management programs within the Americas, North Sea, Middle East and West Africa along with the investigation of new scale inhibitor molecules, novel deployment applications and monitoring methods for scale control in vertical/horizontal wells.

He has been an author or co-author of over 200 Society of Petroleum Engineering, National Association of Corrosion Engineers and Royal Society of Chemistry papers on deployment challenges/solutions for oilfield scale inhibitors.

Myles is an honouree Professor at Institute of GeoEnergy Engineering at Heriot Watt University for the past 12 years.

Paul McAlister

Paul McAlister, Managing Director at Adaptive Process Solutions, Aberdeen based provider of produced water equipment and services.
An innovator and leader in produced water treatment, with more than 30 years UKCS and international service industry experience. Technically engaged with clients, still enjoys the occasional offshore trip to deliver service in the field and to road test continuous improvement opportunities.

Murray Dick

Murray Dick, Technical Lead - Upstream Directorate at EnQuest

He has 30 years upstream O&G experience mainly in the UKCS. With a process engineering background, he is a technical authority and engineering manager for 2^nd generation operators.

Neil Gourlay

Neil Gourlay is an accomplished process engineer with over 25 years of experience in engineering and operations, currently serving as Process Manager at NOV. Leading an engineering team delivering specialised process solutions to the global energy industry, Neil brings extensive expertise in produced water treatment and offshore/onshore energy environments. As a former Field Manager at Repsol Resources UK Ltd, he demonstrated exceptional leadership in managing multidisciplinary engineering teams and strategic projects. Renowned for his innovative problem-solving skills, Neil has consistently driven organisational improvements and delivered significant operational efficiencies across diverse technical environments.”