Large quantities of crude generated from leaks & spills and other maintenance activities of upstream oil & gas industry of Kuwait are being stored in designated earthen pits. These wet pits often referred as sludge pits contained four layers of hydrocarbon contamination viz. oil, water, sludge and soil. This paper deals with the options explored for the sludge treatment focused on blended and non-blended combination. In blending option, the sludge was mixed with low contaminated soil and treated soil in predetermined ratios and in non-blending option, pure sludge was treated to achieve the treated criteria.

The technologies that were used for the blending option included bioremediation, soil washing and thermal desorption and for pure sludge (non-blending), only thermal desorption technology was deployed.

Results of the pilots conducted at field level concerning the sludge treatment meeting the specification, advantages and disadvantages, lessons learnt and way forward for the sludge treatment in future would be discussed in this paper.

Primary Author/Presenter:
Krishna Vangala
Sr. Environmental Engineer
Kuwait Oil Company
Ahmadi
Kuwait

Co-Author:
Mansour Al-Khareji, Kuwait Oil Company