São Paulo – The São Paulo-based company SuperBac has developed a special system for treating the water that comes out of oil wells at the time of extraction. Created by demand of the Partex multinational company, the system will be used by Omani enterprise Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). The Brazilian company is implementing a treatment station in the Arab country’s capital, Muscat, that should start operating within one year, with an initial treating capacity of 100,000 litres of water per hour. SuperBac already has a commercial office in the Arab country.
The system enables for 93% of hydrocarbon residues to be removed from the water that comes out of the well. Thus, the water may be used in irrigation or injected back into the well, an operation required in order to maintain stability and keep the composition of the oil unchanged.
Omar Grecco, SuperBac’s Business and Technology director, explains that the company has been hired by the Portuguese arm of Partex to develop the water treatment system, because it has a strong presence in the Middle East. "Several companies have attempted to carry out this process, but failed," says the executive. According to Grecco, SuperBac has surpassed the expectations of Partex, which was expecting a system that would remove up to 70% of residue from the water. The Brazilian company has managed to exceed that rate by 23%.
Grecco explains that SuperBac already has similar solutions in Brazil. "We adapted it to operate under different conditions," he claims. SuperBac is a biotechnology company and, in addition to the oil industry, it develops solutions for the retail and services, sanitation and bioremediation, agribusiness and application technology sectors. "The main challenge was to find a blend of bacteria to degrade pollutants in that particular environment," explains the executive referring to climate conditions, a factor that influenced the system’s development.
A total of US$ 6 million were invested in building the treatment station, and the work will be undertaken jointly by SuperBac and Partex. The contract with PDO came up after we attended a trade show in the Omani capital. According to Grecco, the system will be introduced at other Middle Eastern events, such as the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec), in the United Arab Emirates, which the company will attend part in November.
The executive claims that he cannot disclose how much the company expects to profit from the treatment station in Oman, and that the figure is not being projected based on this one contract, but rather that new business possibilities in the Middle East are being considered as well. "We are looking at a few million dollars," he explains. "We are interested in beginning to tap into this market, and through our oil solution, taking all of SuperBac’s solutions to the region," says Grecco regarding the company’s plans for the Arab market. "It is a very promising, absolutely strategic market to our development," he asserts.
The director explains that the water treatment system may be adapted to the characteristics of each type of well. "This is a differential, and it attracted lots of attention," he says. "[SuperBac’s system] has reduced the duration of water treatment using microorganisms for promoting degradation of residuals," he claims. Grecco also says that in addition to irrigation and re-injecting into wells, the water treated using SuperBac’s system may also be used in flushing or for washing up outdoor environments. As for drinkability, however, another type of treatment is required.
SuperBac was founded in 1995, and aside from operations in Brazil, it maintains factory units in the United States and in Colombia. The company’s research and development sector is located in the city of Mogi Mirim, in the interior of the state of São Paulo.
The company has 150 employees and its flagship division is sanitation. Most of its revenues are obtained domestically. Its main clients include Suzano Papel e Celulose, Ambev, Coca-Cola, Natura, and others, in various segments.
The Omani-based PDO is a private capital company that operates in oil well drilling and oil extraction.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
