In 1996-1997, an eight-member joint industry project (JIP) conducted various field testing of compact gas-liquid and liquid-liquid technologies for debottlenecking.  The members of the JIP included Arco, BP, Elf, Halliburton, Petrobras, Saudi Aramco, Shell Expro, and Unocal

The photo above shows the trial package setup at the Shell Lan Krabu Field Thailand. Gas-Liquid Auger (bulk gas removal) and two stage Liquid-Liquid cyclone was used to characterize the operating envelopes for these technologies under various conditions.  The trials showed that up to 90% of the water can be removed from a high water cut stream with the use of a Pre-Separator cyclone followed by a deoiling hydrocyclone.

References:

1. Rawlins, C.H., “Partial Processing:  Produced Water Debottlenecking Unlocks Production on Offshore Thailand MOPU Platform”, paper SPE-187109-MS, presented at the 2017 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX, October 9 – 11, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2118/187109-MS