Modeling Offshore Discharges of Produced Water

Industry and government have used the Offshore Operators Committee (OOC) mud and cuttings dispersion model (Brandsma and Sauer, 1983a) for years to assess the effects of drilling effluent discharges. Now, a revised version of the model simulates the dispersion of produced water discharges as well. The same fundamental predictive methods are used in either case. The revised model predicts the fate of soluble components, particulate solids and oil droplets or gas bubbles in the produced water stream. The model also predicts the decline of the plume temperature and salinity to ambient levels.