New Application of an Inline Separation Technology in a Real Wet Gas Field

Abstract

The inline separation technology has attracted the attention of oil and gas field operators due to the considerable weight, space and cost savings that can be achieved. In addition, the inline separation technology can play a major role in debottlenecking and upgrading the existing production facilities.Several gas wells are beginning to produce significant water. Older gas plant facilities were not designed to handle high water production. Compact inline separation technology has the potential of eliminating any water-related restriction on well production, and reducing the investment for upgrading existing conventional separators.A trial test of a skid-mounted inline separation technology (Deliquidizer) is being implemented at a wet gas remote header. The header has three flowing wet gas wells. The separated gas and liquid (water and condensate) streams will be monitored for flow rate and phase fractions using suitable multiphase flow meters. The separated gas will be flowed to the gas plant and separated liquids will be flowed in a separate flowline to the nearest oil processing facility. This will allow unrestricted flow of the gas wells without the need to upgrade the water handling facilities of the gas plant resulting in significant cost savings. This paper discusses the concept, objectives and benefits of inline separation technology application in Saudi Aramco wet gas field. The field trial test loop, process conditions, equipment specifications, and future applications of this technology within Saudi Aramco will also be discussed.

Effect of Superficial Gas Velocity on the Separation Efficiency of Inline Horizontal Swirl Tube Separator

“…Although the technology is fairly new, with some compact separator already installed for field application [2][3][4][5], the lack of information and publication on the separator performance is a problem as highlighted by Hoffman and Stein [6]. Most reports only concentrate on the field application of the separator without discussing the factors that affects the separation performance of the separator.…”