A survey conducted in 1995 by the American Petroleum Institute (API) found that the U.S. exploration and production (E&P) segment of the oil and gas industry generated more than 149 million bbl of drilling wastes, almost 18 billion bbl of produced water, and 21 million bbl of associated wastes....

The largest volume waste stream associated with oil and gas production is produced water. A survey conducted by the American Petroleum Institute estimated that 20.9 billion barrels of produced water were disposed of in 1985 (Wakim 1987). Of this total, 91% was disposed of through disposal wells...

The US Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Petroleum Technology Office is interested in new technologies that can bring oil to the surface at a lower cost or with less environment impact. DOE is particularly interested in technologies that can accomplish both of these goals, and downhole...

Some types of oil and gas production and processing wastes contain naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). If NORM is present at concentrations above regulatory levels in oil field waste, the waste requires special disposal practices. The existing disposal options for wastes containing...

For the past decade, interest has been growing in using underground salt caverns for disposing of wastes. The Railroad Commission of Texas has permitted a few caverns for disposal of nonhazardous oil field waste (NOW) and one cavern for disposal of naturally occurring radioactive materials...

In 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Fossil Energy, asked Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) to conduct a preliminary technical and legal evaluation of disposing of nonhazardous oil field waste (NOW) into salt caverns. That study concluded that disposal of NOW into salt...