Jusepin Main Station Separation Facilities Upgrade by Means of Integrated Multiphase Solutions

Abstract

Abstract The Jusepin main station is a facility designed to process 460.000 B/D of oil and 500 MMSCFD of natural gas produced from El Furrial field, located in the northeastern Venezuela. It consists of eight modules and started operations in late 80's handling a relatively low GOR. A gas injection program was implemented in late 90's as secondary recovery method. As a result the GOR increased 3 times generating bottlenecks in the modules I, II and III. The modules II and III share the inlet and outlet manifolds and therefore, operate as one. An upgrade of the mid pressure separation trains and gas scrubbers of modules I, II and III was required as these surface handling facilities have proven to be the primary constrain limiting the operator's production increasing plan. This paper will describe the facilities constrains and discuss the proposed debottlenecking steps based on integrating several multiphase simple solutions to address most problems. These problems include: constrained gas handling capacity, uneven phase splitting in the modules II and III common inlet manifold and presence of hydrodynamic slugs in the inlet lines. The Cylindrical Cyclone Gas Liquid (CCGL) separation technology was chosen to increase the modules separation capacity due to its compactness, fabrication simplicity and proven high efficiency. Two identical CCGL arrangements were proposed, one for module I and the other for modules II and III. Two solutions were selected to promote the even flow distribution: a new symmetrical common inlet manifold for the modules II and III and flow splitters in every T-junction of the new inlet manifolds. Finally, the dimensions of the inlet lines were designed based on the classical Kelvin Helmholtz theory to promote the transition from slug flow to stratified flow. The combination of these simple multiphase solutions will enable to double the current separation capacity of the modules and reduce the liquid carry over to the compressor plants maintaining the operational interruptions and downtime caused by modifications and tie-ins at a minimum.