SUMMARY
Produced water represents an increasing part of the total production from the process centres operated by Mærsk Olie og Gas in the Danish part of the North Sea. Long term production forecasts predict that some 200 million bbls produced water will require cleaning the next ten years. Due to this significant increase and to the growing environmental concern in connection with this discharge, some of the existing water treatment facilities will require some upgrading and additional capacity. This paper gives an overview of the presently installed equipment, its performance with respect to oil/water separation, operational problems and some of the considerations for the expansion of the purification plant for the Gorm process centre. Further, it describes briefly the observed effect on the marine environment around the Gorm process centre.
