source of water 1 consequently recycling the liquid blowdown provides a dilution of the feedwater and alleviates the requirements of the downstream units the method and installation described above for generating steam are advantageously used in a method respectively in an installation for extracting hydrocarbons from a subterranean formation in this case the steam produced as described above is injected into the formation via at least one injection well the steam mobilizes hydrocarbons contained in the formation such as heavy oil or hydrocarbons contained in oil sands which are recovered in at least a collection well which can be the same as the injection well or which can be a different well produced water is also recovered in the collection well usually produced hydrocarbons and water are mainly in the form of a water oil emulsion the emulsion is separated into a hydrocarbon fraction and a water fraction according to methods known in the art the hydrocarbon fraction is sent to further treatment while the water fraction may be reused as part of the source of water 1 however according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention the water fraction is not reused as part of the source of water 1 but is rather rejected thus there is no artificial increase in the silica content of the feedwater which may make it possible to do without any specific silica removal step on the other hand it is possible to use water from cold oil production as part or all of the source of water 1 that is water produced from a collection well and separated from the produced oil wherein the production of oil and water.