Innovative Approach to Increase Name Plate Capacity of Oil and Gas Gathering Centre: A Case Study of North Kuwait Facility of Kuwait Oil Company

Abstract

Abstract The Oil and Gas gathering and processing facility of Kuwait Oil Company was built with a nameplate capacity of X MBOPD with 50% water cut. However, the facility was operating with a water cut of 35% since its commissioning in year 2011. This comprehensive technical study was conducted to evaluate possibility of increasing oil processing capacity of this facility in line with current lower water cut and other operational flexibilities available in the facility without utilizing its design margin. This paper shares an innovative approach to increase name plate capacity of oil and gas processing facility utilizing available operational flexibility and operational margins with minor modification. It shares a case study where facility capacity is increased by around 19% without utilizing design margins of equipment or pipeline. Such approach can easily be applied to all similar facilities across oil & gas industry. The study confirmed that facility name plate capacity can be revised from X MBOPD (with 50% w.c) to X+32 MBOPD (with 45% w.c). It is observed that minor modification in control loop of separator to utilize three phase separator as two phase separator, lower water cut of the feed stream and margin available in feed specification of Desalter trains are major contributors to get leverage in increasing name plate capacity of facility. The paper provides detailed guideline for such out of the box technical evaluation of facility to operate it at higher capacity without any major modifications which will result in significant financial / production gains for any organization.