TOPICS OF INTEREST
PROCESSING SYSTEMS/DESIGN
University of Houston Researchers Make Progress in the Modeling of Evaporation
Researchers described the temperature changes at the point where liquid meets the vapor during evaporation. The explanation, developed using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method, will allow scientists to more accurately simulate the performance of systems based on the theory of evaporation.
Energy Companies Well Suited To Adapt to Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0, the latest industrial revolution, has hit the manufacturing sector, building upon the adoption of computers and automation into industrial processes. How well suited is the oil and gas industry to leverage the new autonomous systems that could emerge from this transformation?
Water Desalination Applications in Shale-Gas and Polymer EOR Produced Waters
Oil and gas extraction using water has opened up new hydrocarbon resources. However they can produce four times more salty water byproduct than oil. Desalination in shale gas and polymer-flood EOR remain niche markets for lowering cost and improving production.
Engineering Diagram Processing Featured in Worley and Arundo Global Hub for Advanced Analytics
Using deep-learning and computer-vision techniques, the software recognizes all instances of specific instruments, valves, lines, and other features in a P&I diagram in seconds.
Partners Advance Newbuild FLNG Vessel Development for Gulf of Mexico Project
Delfin Midstream announced advancements in partnership with Samsung Heavy Industries and Black & Veatch. By re-purposing existing offshore pipelines and building the FLNG vessels at Asian shipyards, the total capital costs are projected to be around $500–550/tpa.
S-710 Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers Specification Launched for Review
The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers-managed JIP 33 has issued specification S-170 for public review. The closing date for comments is 27 November.
Leverage Risk-Based Inspection and Risk Assessment for Improved Profitability
Risk-based inspection is based on sophisticated risk analysis which significantly decreases overheads and helps to avoid equipment failures or unnecessary shutdowns.
Corrosion Will Occur, Whether You Like It or Not
Just like Houston’s summer heat, corrosion of metal surfaces will occur—whether you like it or not. To help you better understand corrosion, these papers describe using water surveys in a production/injection plant, testing the effectiveness of mitigation, and data evaluation using machine learning.
Machine Learning Enhances Evaluation of Oil and Gas Assets
Using machine learning (ML), image recognition, and object detection, the use of ML on algorithms to recognize objects and describe their condition were investigated—offering new possibilities for performing inspection and data gathering to evaluate the technical condition of oil and gas assets.
Water Survey Assesses Souring and Corrosion at Production/Injection Plant
At a water treatment plant for an onshore oil field in northern Germany, formaldehyde injection was started in 2015 as a biocide. The goal of this study was to understand the chemical parameters and microbial distribution in the water system and whether formaldehyde injection was effective.
Static Equipment: Understanding Heat Exchangers
Take a closer look at heat exchangers, including the various types and designs available, applications, and selection considerations. This article helps the project engineer, who is not an equipment specialist, to check that economical choices are made across all involved disciplines.
ABS To Classify New Monocolumn Platform Designed for Offshore Malaysia
ABS will classify a new self-elevating platform with a unique triangular monocolumn design from Calm Oceans Pte Ltd.
Weld Overlay Joins the Party as Corrosion-Resistant Pipe Undercapacity Threatens Project Scheduling
It is rare that businesses selling equipment to the oil and gas sector can benefit from lower oil prices. But that is the case for CRA pipe manufacturers, which are comfortably outperforming 2014 levels.
Johan Sverdrup Phase 2 Plan Approved
Construction for the field’s second processing platform begins on the same day the Norwegian authorities approved the plan for development and operation for the biggest field development on the Norwegian continental shelf.
LNG Market Stands at Infrastructure Crossroads
More flexible approaches to financing, production, and trading are crucial to meeting world’s needs, new study finds.
Calcasieu Pass Gets LNG Export OK From DOE
Latest federal approval authorizes US LNG exports to non-FTA countries.
Smart-Fluid-Processing System Reduces Footprint, Improves Separation Efficiency
Reducing a separation system’s footprint while increasing separation efficiency is demonstrated in an Oklahoma field trial.
Trendsetter Completes Delivery of Production Equipment for Leviathan Project
Trendsetter Engineering completed its 2-year design and build work for Noble Energy’s Leviathan project.
The Savvy Separator: Lessons for Installation of Separator Internals
Process design of separation internals is just one step in improving the vessel performance. Just as important are the support design and installation steps. These lessons learned help to guide good off- and on-site planning to minimize separator turnaround.
Static Equipment: A Look Inside the How and Why of Specification
The specification and selection of equipment is the responsibility of the static equipment engineer, based on requirements specified by other disciplines, including process, materials, and plant layout. These guidelines contain cost-effective recommendations for design, materials, and fabrication.
Kiewit Wins EPIC Contract for Calcasieu Pass LNG Export Project
Venture Global LNG awarded the EPIC contract for its Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility to Kiewit. FID is expected in 2019, completion in 2022.
Condition-Based Maintenance Helps Develop a North Sea Low-Manned Platform
Remote condition monitoring of offshore platform equipment tracks performance data, watching for deviations from baseline benchmarks. Unexpected variances can be investigated and serviced by technicians dispatched to target the root causes—an approach called condition-based maintenance.
Improving Facility Design With Integrated Modeling
Steady-state modeling of an asset requires the work of multiple engineering teams, which often leads to suboptimal facility design. An integrated model using information consistently across the entire asset may alleviate the pain resulting from conventional methods.
Surface-Facilities Design for First CO2 EOR Project in Saudi Arabia
A demonstration project of carbon capture, utilization, and storage through enhanced oil recovery was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Surface facilities for such projects are expensive to build and involve tradeoffs in options based on economics for a given set of conditions.
Savvy Separator: 5 Lessons To Simplify Separator Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting and solving separation problems takes a combination of analytical tools, experience, and a knack for investigation. These 5 lessons provide a starting point for assessment.
RDS and Kavin Engineering Form Alliance To Design and Engineer Upstream and Midstream Projects
RDS, a KCA Deutag division, and Kavin Engineering and Services entered into a strategic alliance to jointly pursue design and engineering projects across the upstream and midstream oil and gas market. Last month, KCA Deutag agreed to form a joint venture with SOCAR.
Development of Barrier-Fluid-Less Subsea Pumps Gains Momentum
The latest entrants to tackle the development of barrier-fluid-less subsea pumps are Saipem and Curtiss-Wright Corp., who agreed to collaborate in designing and building pumps for water treatment and injection.
Savvy Separator: Oversizing Separators—Too Much of a Good Thing?
Oversizing a separator ensures meeting the life cycle needs of a facility, but are we setting ourselves up for failure in the long run? With peak rates typically being short-lived at best, or at worse, well beyond actual production rates, more weight needs to be given to the tail-end of production.
A Model for Evaluating Inlet Systems to Gas/Liquid Separators
Learn about the guidelines for early stages of projects and a method for evaluating the effect of inlet piping and devices on gas/liquid separator performance and useful tools to evaluate the adequacy of a proposed design. [Note: Updated on 22 May, the article contains a number of corrections.]
Moving Away From Our “Eiffel Tower” Approach to Offshore Processing Equipment
We don’t include a structure like the Eiffel Tower with separators, pumps, and compressors on the top observation platform in an onshore development plan. And yet, how many jacket platforms are there around the world?
High-Voltage Subsea Pump Enables Low-Cost Boosting
Subsea pumps are used for gas/liquid separation, subsea compression, and subsea boosting. Solutions aiming at cost reductions are crucial to make subsea processing projects feasible. A cost- and complexity-reduction solution for the subsea electrical power supply is a critical consideration.
Selecting the Right Subsea Pump for Your Application
Operator or manufacturer’s reports and published papers are reviewed and a criterion is developed for subsea pump selection.
Subsea High-Boosting Multiphase Pumps Increase Oil Recovery in Aging Field (Includes presentation slides)
Production from an offshore Angola field has been decreasing because of subsea pressure declines amid water-cut increases and limited gas compressor capacity. The development process leading to the selection of high-boosting multiphase pumps is described.
Executing Offshore Projects More Efficiently
Offshore project execution enhancement ideas are highlighted for debottlenecking, gas-hydrate-induced pipeline vibration, and the design of subsea systems for efficient startup.
Produced-Water Debottlenecking Improves Offshore Production
An operator in the western Gulf of Thailand retrofit two partial-processing water-management systems on mobile-offshore-production-unit platforms for bulk removal and treatment of produced water. Water debottlenecking increased oil production by 80% and reduced the infield transfer volume by 62%. Th
All-Electric Subsea Processing Advances With Testing of Subsea Variable Speed Drive
A JIP turned the dial closer to achieving all-electric subsea processing with the underwater testing of a subsea variable speed drive in a harsh water environment.
SNC-Lavalin Wins Award for Fast-Tracking of Cardon IV Facilities Project
SNC-Lavalin was recognized by the Rice Global Engineering & Construction Forum’s Award of Excellence for the fast-track installation of a 150 MMcf/D natural gas processing plant for production from the offshore Venezuela Perla field.
GATE Energy Joins Ranks of Contract Awardees for Noble’s Leviathan Project
GATE Energy is the most recent contract awardee for Noble Energy’s Leviathan project offshore Israel. It will provide the commissioning of the production platform for the megaproject.
Improving Gas Dehydration With Preinhibited Glycol
The paper discusses dehydration performance of two units in two plants—with preinhibited glycol/antifoam/pH adjuster blend vs. neat glycol with periodic injection of antifoam and pH-adjuster inhibitors. The insights present an opportunity for significant operating and capital costs reduction.
The Savvy Separator: The Code Implications of Retrofitting Separators
This article highlights some of the code and registration issues the Savvy Separator engineer encounters when retrofitting a vessel with internals to improve or restore the process performance of the separator.
Quantifying Oil/Water Separation Performance in Three-Phase Separators—Part 2
Part 2 of this two-part series presents a new methodology for sizing and rating three-phase separators based on quantifying the actual mechanisms and physics that govern separation performance. An example illustrates the calculations needed to achieve the specified outlet fluid qualities.
Human Error: The Big Hurdle to Safer Facilities
Why is designing with human error in mind so critical? Consider that nearly 80% of all offshore facility accidents are caused by human errors, and 64% of these accidents happen during operations.
The Savvy Separator: Physical Processes Behind Oil Droplet Coalescence During Water Treatment
By understanding the factors involved in oil droplet coalescence, the Savvy Separator engineer can assess the operational/chemical factors in the treatment system that are affecting droplet growth and make adjustments to enhance coalescence rates.
Compact, Efficient Heat Exchanger Based on Packed Beds of Nanoparticle-Doped Spheres
In this work, the authors demonstrate at a laboratory scale the possibility of using a radio-frequency heating system as a heat exchanger.
Quantifying Oil/Water Separation Performance in Three-Phase Separators—Part 1
This first article in a two-part series discusses a new methodology for sizing and rating three-phase separators that is based on quantifying the actual mechanisms and physics that govern performance in typically used equipment.
Savvy Separator: Operational Troubleshooting of Separators
In this tenth article of the series, the author focuses primarily on specific operational elements of troubleshooting rather than the mechanical design of the separator.
Savvy Separator: Taming Tower Carry-Over
Lessons learned in debottlenecking a “dirty” triethylene glycol contactor at the ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company’s LaBarge Black Canyon Facility in Wyoming highlight the results of work performed between 2001 and 2004.
Pressure-Minimization Method for Prediction of Two-Phase-Flow Splitting
Looped lines are used to reduce pressure drop and increase flow capacity, but information on the flow behavior or predictive methods are not available for these systems.
Savvy Separator: Level Design and Control in Gravity Separators
In this eighth articles of the series, level settings and control in gravity separators are addressed.
Applying Subsea Fluid-Processing Technologies for Deepwater Operations
Subsea processing is an evolving technology in ultradeepwater development and has the potential to unlock a significant amount of hydrocarbon resources. In this paper, the authors have reviewed the application of subsea systems in 12 deepwater fields and discussed the significance of each.
Savvy Separator: Introduction to CFD for Separator Design
Why CFD should be part of your separator design? This goal of this goal is to allay any fears about CFD that you may have as a result of flashbacks to university class and a dizzying array of partial-differential equations.
Savvy Separator Series: The Effect of Shear on Produced Water Treatment
The sources and magnitude of shear and the effects on oil droplet size can have significant consequences for downstream separation equipment performance.
Savvy Separator: The Ghosts of Separators Past, Present, and Future
Lessons learned by the members of the SPE Separations Technology Technical Section, representing more than 250 years' experience, are presented so that the same mistakes are not repeated in the future.
Savvy Separator: Scrubber Debottlenecking
An underperforming scrubber that was suffering from too much oil carry-over is described along with options for debottlenecking and improving performance.
Savvy Separator: The Effect of Inlet Geometries on Flow Distribution
Efficient separation assumes uniform flow, but the reality of inlet geometries can invalidate this assumption, leading to separation problems and loss of separation efficiency.
Savvy Separator: Design of Cyclone Separators: Internals and Liquid Levels
Some internals components affect a separator's gas- and liquid-handling capability because of their effects on the liquid level. In this article, the interdependency of cyclonic inlets, cyclonic mist eliminators, and liquid level is highlighted.
Taking on the Technical Challenges of Sour Gas Processing
High H2S and CO2 content in natural gas pose significant challenges to processing equipment. This article explores the challenges of sulfur removal and high pressures in the presence of acid gas.
Topside Processing Plants Go Compact on FPSOs
The development of compact topside processing plants for floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels is a growing industry trend that can reduce operating and capital expenditures over the life of the vessel, a researcher and scientist said recently.
Novel Leak Detection Method for Sulfur Recovery Unit Condensers
Tube leaks present in a water-cooled sulfur recovery unit (SRU) condenser can lead to a variety of process issues, including corrosion and the oxidative formation of acidic species. This work devised a novel method to verify such leaks within a SRU condenser.
Acoustic-Induced-Vibration Case Study for WDDM Onshore Facilities
In gas applications with high-pressure drops and/or high-velocity gas flow, acoustic-induced vibration (AIV) occurs when very high sound levels are propagated in piping. This can induce fatigue cracking of the pipe and potentially catastrophic pipe failure.
New Method To Estimate Surface-Separator Optimum Operating Pressures
Setting optimal surface separation pressures are crucial for maximizing the surface liquid production from the wellstream feed. Where separator tests are not available, empirical calculations are often used, but with limitations. A method suitable across many conditions is proposed.
Advancements in the Removal of Mercury From Crude Oil
Issues associated with mercury’s presence in hydrocarbon processing systems have become more apparent as deeper and hotter reservoirs (often with higher levels of mercury) were exploited, and with the low-temperature gas processing used for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas liquids.
Sulfate Removal—The Adoption of a Water Treatment Technology by the Oil and Gas Industry
The oil and gas industry is sometimes slow to adopt new technologies and other times quick to deploy a new approach. The decision whether to try something new weighs the perceived risks and rewards.
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