摘要 |
It is common in oil extraction operations to reinject produced gas and\or water back into hydrocarbon bearing formations in order to maintain formation pressure. Conventional production facilities normally flow all formation fluids to the surface and subsequently reinject the required fluids back into the formation, which can be extremely inefficient due to the high power input required to overcome the large pressure differential between the surface and formation level. Accordingly, there is disclosed a production fluid handling method and apparatus for separating downhole at least gaseous and liquid components (16, 18, 20) of fluid produced from a hydrocarbon bearing formation (12), and reinjecting at least a portion of the gaseous and liquid components (16, 18, 20), as required, back into the formation (12). Re-injection also occurs downhole to increase the overall efficiency of a separation/re-injection operation as the re-injection pressure differential is minimized.
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