Increasing water contents in production can have negative effects on the functioning of an installed (electrostatic) dehydration system and thus on the overall performance of the process. At water cuts above 50 %, electrostatic systems can be susceptible to short circuits and/or the residence time of the crude oil in the electrostatic system can be too short, which can affect the overall oil quality.

To safely counteract this and to achieve a stable process flow with constant or even improved performance, the water cut should be continuously reduced below this limit. For this purpose, the GEA Crude Oil Treatment System is installed upstream of the electrostatic system.

High-performance GEA nozzle separators, the GEA crude oil dehydration Centrifuges, can reliably reduce water cuts of up to 90 % to the required level of less than 5 %. These continuously operating centrifuges separate liquids while simultaneously concentrating the solids. The concentrated solids are continuously discharged through nozzles and the separated liquids (water and oil) are discharged under pressure. 

Learn more about our GEA crude oil dehydration centrifuges on the corresponding product page.