1 In some locations, the oil and produced water and everything is 



2 transported ashore. The production separation of the oil from the water 



3 is done on shore. Then sometimes, it is discharged back to the coastal 



4 zone; in some places in California, the produced water goes back off- 



5 shore for discharge; in other places, it's reinjected. There are a lot 



6 of different scenarios. 



7 In the case of if it is a gas area, predominantly, which there is 



8 some thought that this particular area we are talking about might be 



9 more prone to gas than it is to oil, and I have heard that suggested, 



10 then you would have little or no produced water; whereas, with oil 



11 production, you tend to have most of your produced water. 



12 DR. VALENTINE: Roughly, what percentage is water? 



13 DR. RAY: It depends on where the formations are being produced 



14 from and the age of a well. Usually, 10 percent or less of the volume 



15 would be produced water, really early in the life of the well. 



16 In some of the old wells that we've got down in the Gulf of 



17 Mexico, you can have 70 to 80 to 90 percent of the total volume produced 



18 will be water. It shifts during the life of a production of a field. 



19 DR. AYERS: There is an economic limit on how much water you can 



20 take. The water/oil ratio is controlled by economics, crude price, what 



21 it costs to get rid of the water. If it gets too high, they stop. 



22 DR. HECKER: Can we continue this after we've given this the last 



23 15 minutes? 



24 DR. AURAND: I think there is one thing you need to think about. 



25 If we are going to do the new arrangement that we talked about, 



26 something needs to get written down very quickly. 



27 I think people need to decide who is going to right what down. Then we 



28 need to break for lunch and you need to come back and write something 



29 that everybody can see. 



30 Then we need to go on to a discussion of what the mechanisms of 



31 impacts are and whether or not we can reach any conclusions relative to 



32 this topic. Otherwise, we are going to lose a lot of 



33 people--physically, not mentally, necessarily, but people will be 



34 leaving. 



252 



