Control of microbial sulfide production by limiting sulfate dispersal in a water-injected oil field

•Microbial conversion of injected sulfate to sulfide (souring) is a problem for oil companies.•Nitrate injection, stimulating subsurface nitrate-reducers, is used to combat this problem.•Sulfide removal by reservoir rock allows sulfate free water generation by a two stage injection.•Use of this technology allows injection of less nitrate.•Injection of nitrate and sulfate free water changes the community in oil field produced waters. Oil production by water injection often involves the use of makeup water to replace produced oil. Sulfate in makeup water is reduced by sulfate-reducing bacteria to sulfide, a process referred to as souring. In the MHGC field souring was caused by using makeup water with 4mM (384ppm) sulfate. Mixing with sulfate-free produced water gave injection water with 0.8mM sulfate. This was amended with nitrate to limit souring and was then distributed fieldwide. The start-up of an enhanced-oil-recovery pilot caused all sulfate-containing makeup water to be used for dissolution of polymer, which was then injected into a limited region of the field. Produced water from this pilot contained 10% of the injected sulfate concentration as sulfide, but was free of sulfate. Its use as makeup water in the main water plant of the field caused injection water sulfate to drop to zero. This in turn strongly decreased produced sulfide concentrations throughout the field and allowed a decreased injection of nitrate. The decreased injection of sulfate and nitrate caused major changes in the microbial community of produced waters. Limiting sulfate dispersal into a reservoir, which acts as a sulfate-removing biofilter, is thus a powerful method to decrease souring.