ABSTRACT
Crude oil exploitation offshore has advanced to the point, at least on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where the era of large fields with a high quantity and quality is over. Since the possibility of finding highly productive formations is small the corresponding strategy is focused on an improved exploitation of the existing large fields and to tie in, in an efficient way, small fields. The most important thing when focusing on existing large fields is to increase the recovery rate. This, however, can be connected with typical flow assurance problems. At older fields the co-production of water is in most cases substantial. It is well known that many wells co-produce water to an extent of 50 to 70%. This production profile will cause problems with high water volumes in the separator and emulsions close to the inversion point.
