Innovative Solution for the Disposal of the Produced Water in the GoS Province

Abstract Gulf of Suez is one of the largest provinces that produce oil in Egypt and Middle East. GOS oil reserve represents 46 % of Egypt's reserve where GOS oil production represents 23 % of Egypt's production. Water production rate in GOS is 500 Mbbl/day with salinity 80000 – 130000 ppm that represents an environmental hazard. There are different alternatives for disposing this large amount of produced water such as underground disposal, water injection, and using it in tertiary recovery methods. In this research, I will explain the three different alternatives that exist for disposing the produced water accompanying the produced oil in the GOS. Moreover, I will elaborate an innovative solution for this important issue. This solution depends on desalination of produced water using different desalination techniques until getting the desired salinity 40000 ppm that is environmentally accepted and using the large amount of waste brine from desalination to create sodium hydroxide. The brine-to-caustic process is shown to be technically feasible while offering several advantages, that is, the reduced environmental impact of desalination through lessened brine discharge, and the increase in the overall water recovery ratio of the reverse osmosis facility. Additionally, best-use conditions are given for producing caustic not only for use within the plant, but also in excess amounts for potential revenue.