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„One cannot plan for the unexpected“. This famous quote by the scientist Aaron Klug was the motto of the first excursion in the year 2016. Originally it was planned to visit the OMV refinery in Schwechat and afterwards a water treatment plant in Schönkirchen. Nevertheless sometimes things turn out differently…
At 8:00 in the morning we started our journey in front of the RWZ-Building when we entered the bus that brought us to the OMV refinery in Schwechat. While waiting at the main entrance in front of the refinery we were confronted with some bad news. A company representative told us that a power out in a transformer station caused a shutdown of the refinery. Therefore due to safety reasons no external people were allowed to enter the refinery. It was the first time since 25 years that the refinery had to be shut down. Here you can find additional information about the incident (only in German available).
Nevertheless there was no time to complain about our bad luck because after some phone calls we managed to find an interesting alternative. Therefore a little bit earlier than expected we arrived at the OMV field office in Gänserndorf. After an informative video about the water treatment plant and the obligatory safety briefing all participants of the excursion were equipped with personal safety equipment.
Then we jumped onto the bus again and went to the gathering station in Matzen. At this station oil, gas and water that is produced by the different wells around the area is separated and afterwards distributed to different process facilities. One of the company representatives gave us a very interesting tour through the facility and explained in detail how all the different processes are carried out.
Gathering station Matzen
Finally our last stop was then at the water treatment plant in Schönkirchen. This facility is brand new and it uses innovative techniques to separate the formation water from oil. This is necessary because the water is used for reinjection into the reservoir and it is highly important that the oil content is reduced to a minimum. Again we got a tour through the facility and it was very impressive to see how much work and thought went into the design of the different process steps.
Our tour was then finished with the obligatory group picture in front of the field office.
Group picture in front of the OMV Austria Exploration & Production GmbH in Gänserndorf.
The SPE Student Chapter Leoben would like to thank the OMV for their support and for providing this opportunity to our students.
We would also like to thank all the participants and we hope that it was an enjoyable experience.
We are looking forward to see you at our next excursion…
