Techbits: Efficiency Improvements for Facilities Focus of Workshop

Abstract

Techbits Innovations aimed at improving efficiencies in surface facilities were the focus of an SPE Applied Technology Workshop (ATW) titled "Surface Facilities: Improving Efficiencies in Production, Energy Conservation, CO2 Reduction, and Waste Management" held in Dubai. More than 50 attendees from 25 companies and 16 countries reviewed the challenges of oil/water/gas separation, conservation, emission, and waste management in the backdrop of increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. Abbas Ahmed Yousef, field manager for Adco's Bab field, opened the ATW with a keynote address focusing on the means to improve surface-facility efficiency, emphasizing the need for operators to adopt more enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to improve production efficiencies. He also touched on the importance of energy conservation and emissions and waste management, particularly as producing fields mature. Oil/Water/Gas Separation and Handling In the ATW's first session, Ahmed Abdulmajeed of Saudi Aramco discussed process enhancements in gas/oil separation plants within his company. He reviewed how a new mixing valve for wash water going to desalters was able to reduce wash water consumption from 50 to 30 gallons per minute, resulting in more than 10 million gallons of water savings over one year. He also discussed how the implementation of a smokeless, high-pressure air-assisted flare system, which employs a new flare-tip design and additional flare-tip shield, provides for better gas combustion. Saudi Aramco is also testing an in-line water separator that promises to remove approximately 70–80% of water without the need to treat in a gas/oil separation plant and with quality in the range of 22–35 ppm of oil in water. Alexander de Kruijf of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) discussed the pitfalls of improper oil and gas sampling and made predictions on future process-equipment design. Inaccurate measurement of H2S in one PDO application led to deteriorating sales gas quality, with H2S concentrations reaching 5 ppm. The result was 4 months of deferment equivalent to approximately 100,000 BOPD. To prevent acid corrosion in equipment, de Kruijf stressed the importance of routinely measuring for organic acid, using corrosion-resistant alloys with increased corrosion allowances, and implementing organic pH neutralizers. In general, he advised that production chemistry programs should be an integral part of a project's process. Oliver Garnier of Total reviewed a strategy to maintain production from his company's mature Abu Al-Bukhoosh field. The field has been producing since 1974, and present production is 15,000 BOPD with an average basic sediment and water (BS&W) of 86%. By implementing improvements, including increasing the impeller size in the gas recovery compressor, closing wells with too high a BS&W, optimizing well productivity by using multiphase flowmeters, and implementing de-emulsifier injection with gas lift, Total has managed to level the oil production potential to above 16,000 BOPD since 2007.