Like trying to drink treacle through a straw – that’s how it must have felt for the ‘pump jacks’ used by the Nederlandse Aardoliemaatschappij (NAM) in Schoonebeek, in the province of Drente, when they first tried to pump the oil out of the ground. That’s because the oil found there is rather thick and syrupy. But the oilfield will be back in operation again from 2010 thanks to a new plant which Stork is helping to build.

The first oil from the Schoonebeek field is expected to be produced in July 2010. There will then be a total of 73 pumps (44 production wells, 4 observation wells and 25 steam injection wells) at 18 locations. The familiar ‘pump jacks’ won’t be seen again.

For the oil production, NAM uses ultra-pure water from a facility that is currently being built at the RWZI water-treatment plant in Emmen. This is converted into steam in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. The steam is then transported through pipelines to the oilfields, where it is injected at a depth of around 800 metres into the Bentheim sandstone layer. The viscosity of the oil is reduced by the high temperature and mixing with water.

The production well where the oil, production water and gas are captured and transported to the oil treatment plant is located at around 150 metres from the steam injection well. There the oil, gas and production water are separated. The production water is transported by a pipeline to the empty gasfields in the province of Twente, where it is injected deep underground, while the crude oil goes through another pipeline to the BP refinery in Lingen, Germany.

The flue gases from the CHP plant are used to generate electricity, which is used to power all the processes. Surplus electricity is transported over a 110 kV line to the public grid.

Hans Reitzema and Peter van Eck, Project Manager for Schoonebeek and Oil & Gas Director of Stork Technical Services, respectively, are strangely relaxed when you consider the huge job they’re involved with. They are working on the both the giant CHP plant and the oil treatment plant. “Thinking up plans and developing and building them are what engineers thrive on. The bigger and more complex, the better.”