Separation of oil-well fluid mixtures

摘要

A method and apparatus for the separation of the water from the oil/gas in the well itself, down-hole, in which gravity is allowed to work on the mixture in a non-vertical section of the well, and then, using separated flow paths, the gravity-separated components pumped to the surface or into a subterranean discharge zone. Detectors are used to control the pumping so as to keep the unsettled/unseparated mixture away from the flow paths. Preferably the discharge zone is chosen to have a formation pressure which is lower than the pressure of the producing zone.