Gas processing: good money on waste

Let’s analyze potential gas-processing options for a small oil company. It is extracting up to 120 mln scm of associated petroleum gas per year. Currently the gas is flared.

A gas pipeline of intermediate pressure (3.5 Mpa) passes 10 km away from the oil treatment unit, where oil and gas are separated. Technical specs for adding the gas to the pipeline are as follows: −10°С dew point for water, −5°С dew point for hydrocarbons. Company’s oilfield can be reached by wheeled transport by road.

The task

The closest objective of the Customer is to stop gas flaring; the plan was to contribute Associated petroleum gas to the gas pipeline, bringing it up to spec by extracting the sales products.

After scrutinizing the options we came forward with a process that would enable the Customer to effectively produce natural gas liquids (NGL) with a high extraction rate. NGL could later be fractioned to get the end products.

The composition of the associated petroleum gas treating facility

The battery limit for the plant consists of the following:

• Feed gas compression skid
• Dew point control skid with de-ethanizer column
• De-butanizer column
• Ethylene glycol regeneration skid
• Propane chiller skid

End products:

• Dry stripped gas in accordance with СТО 089-2010 specification
• LPG (compliant with ГОСТ 20448-90 specs)
• Stabilized gas condensate with saturated vapor pressure up to 500 mm HG.

Economics

Indices

CAPEX