METHOD OF PROCESSING OIL SLIMES Russian patent published in 2000 - IPC

FIELD: oil and gas production and petroleum processing. SUBSTANCE: oil slime from storage ponds and/or slime formed in the process of mechanical treatment of oil- containing waste waters, and/or slime formed in oil tanks during their cleansing is prepared by diluting it, if necessary, with crude oil to adjust content of the latter in slime to 20 wt.%. Slime is then heated by the aid of steam heaters and simultaneous direct injection of a part of steam to provide circulation of slime making it homogeneous. The thus prepared slime is pumped into decanter, where slime is separated into oil, aqueous, and solid phases having different densities. Oil phase is then settled and returned into charging stock tanks of petroleum-processing enterprise for further processing. Aqueous and solid phases are separately evacuated. According to invention, part of heating steam is the steam from steam generators operated on combustion of associated gas and/or gas released in the crude oil primary heat treatment process, and/or gas resulting from thermo-destructive processes associating crude oil and/or intermediate products processing, and/or process gas fed into gas distribution network at temperature mostly 50-70 C and pressure mostly 3-5 kg/sq.cm. Before combustion, gas is heated to at least 100 C. Advantageously, 15 to 40% of gas is burnt in steam generators and the rest in process installations. EFFECT: reduced power consumption, expenses on steam, and injurious emissions. 20 cl, 1 tbl