The site is hosted by Vaquero Energy, an exploration and production (E&P) company based in Bakersfield, California.
EWS is a high-speed, chemical-free process to clean up large quantities of water. For on-site applications, EWS is typically combined with downstream processes into the complete solution, CLEAN-FRAC. These processes include TriSep Corp’s iSep ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system. An iSep unit is now operating at the Vaquero site to help demonstrate CLEAN-FRAC’s end-to-end capability.
“After our field testing in the natural gas fields of Colorado and the light oil reservoirs of West Texas, it is critical from a technical perspective to have a test site in the heavy oil fields of Central California,” said Lee Portillo, OriginOil VP of Engineering for Oil & Gas.
“We were delighted to welcome OriginOil on our site, because we’ve prioritized treating our produced water for beneficial reuse in our Cyclic Steam boilers and for agricultural irrigation,” said Wyatt Shipley, Vaquero Energy operations manager. “OriginOil’s units are treating our produced water, while also recovering significant amounts of oil, which otherwise would have been lost to disposal. We are excited about the potential for this new technology to work in the field.”
OriginOil has placed two units at Vaquero. The first is a P250 model, which can treat 250 barrels per day (bpd). The second is the commercial-scale P3000, designed to treat 3000 bpd.