Efficient Utilization of N2 during Commissioning and Startup In one of ADNOC's mega projects, Nitrogen was utilized for commissioning as well as start-up purposes, saving time and assessing equipment performance much earlier than planned. This paper which will be sectionalized in two parts, presents an extraordinary approach out of the norms for the usual nitrogen use in upstream oil and gas industries of purging and blanketing, resulting in significant savings in time and expenditure. Commissioning with N2 There are many arguments about the risk / reward relation when it comes to applying Field test run with an inert gas (N2) ahead of hydrocarbon in, involving high pressure centrifugal compression systems. This part aims to discuss the advantages of adopting N2 testing well ahead of gas-in, challenges and rewards. Although the codes from API and ASME give details on the requirements of running compressors with gases different of design ones. The installation, the procedure, and the acceptance criteria are subject of agreement between vendor and company. Therefore, it's important to detail and agree with the Vendors on all process and mechanical criteria, limitations and necessary precautions ahead of adopting such tests. Additionally In this part, the various requirements to adopt testing high pressure compressor with N2 gas will be presented and along with a discussion on their capabilities to detect a variety of problems. Some issues which occurred during the N2 test run at site will be described. Based on test characteristics and at the related cases, recommendations are made when ordering new compression system with considerations regarding the return of investment of these tests. Startup with N2 Nitrogen (N2) was used as a stripping medium during the initial startup of the plant facilities. The target was to start producing stabilized crude simultaneously with the hot commissioning of the gas circuit. This part presents the overall results of adopting this approach. An assessment was carried out utilizing simulation software HYSYS prior to the startup. Post startup, actual field results were collected to analyze the effectiveness of N2 stabilization. N2 was proven to be an effective stripping medium in crude stabilization.
Upstream developments in prolific oil and gas fields are highly profitable and hence attract various investors/partners, whereas Downstream developments profitability is margin based and challenging under certain situations to receive similar interest for investment in the same location. Vertical Integration Strategy implementation through hybrid upstream and downstream concession agreements can help address this issue. The seventies witnessed major changes in the oil industry's structures and strategies resulting from the nationalization of oil and gas reserves. This ultimately led to a separation between the upstream sector with national oil companies (NOCs) controlling most of the world reserves and crude production, and the downstream sector with the international oil companies (IOCs) controlling the largest share of the refining and marketing aspects in the main consuming countries. In the recent past, NOCs have started forward integration of its upstream sector with downstream sector to take advantage of the synergies and increase profitability. This paper takes the strategy a step more forward by exploring the possibility of developing oil and gas assets through a hybrid upstream/downstream concession agreement that can be awarded by the host government. The model hybrid agreement is built by integrating a typical upstream concession agreement with downstream equity-based joint venture (JV) agreement. It also takes the learnings from Production Development Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA) applied in the development of a Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) asset or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) asset which are usually developed as an integrated upstream and downstream business model. It is also feasible to build the hybrid agreement based on upstream Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) instead of a Concession Agreement. The paper will discuss how the hybrid upstream and downstream concession agreement is built and how it will distribute the risk and rewards across the entire value chain for investors, expand the scope of investment and support in the economic development of the host country.
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