Extraction Operations

Extraction Operations

Extraction involves recovering and processing oil and gas to remove sand, water, and other impurities. Produced water (PW) is the largest volume of wastewater generated during oil and gas recovery operations. During this phase of hydrocarbon production, hydrocarbons are drained from an oil or gas field using the recovery methods of pressure maintenance or waterflooding. The production stage maximizes the recovery of petroleum from subsurface reservoirs. Production activities involve primary oil recovery, secondary oil recovery, and tertiary or enhanced oil recovery. After a few years, an oil well is sealed and the land restored to its original condition. Site abandonment marks plugging a well or wells and restoring the site when a production well is no longer economically viable or lacks the potential to produce economic quantities of oil or gas. Some well-known EP companies include Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabian Oil Company), Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Equinor ASA, PJSC Gazprom, and Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation).