Oil and Gas Facilities

19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
State of the art of oil fields surface facilities
technologies

Mr Martin Mastandrea, TECNA, Argentina

Mr Juan Martin Pandolfi, TECNA, Argentina

Abstract
More severe environmental regulations, the need of capex and opex reduction, production
fluid of poorer quality, more stringent product specifications and the requirement of more
flexible designs are probably the most important causes that have boosted during the last
decade the technological evolution in the oil upstream sector.

As a result, the state of art of technologies used in oil field surface facilities has considerably
changed.

Several technologies are being more frequently used such as flow assurance, new internal
coatings and drag reduction agents, multiphase pumps, high efficiency four-phase separation
equipment, compact oil conditioning equipment, high efficiency heat exchangers, heavy oil
transport and upgrade processes technologies, vapors recovery units, wet gas compressors,
leak detection systems, complex control and safety systems, HIPPS and new corrosion
monitoring and control technologies.

The above mentioned causes are also driven the use of cogeneration and combined cycles in
the sector.

Each one of the previously mentioned technologies produces capex and opex savings e.g.
decrease the number of pieces of equipment, plot area and civil works requirements, increase
of energy efficiency, add of value to products, better use of human resources and decrease of
corrective maintenance costs, among others.

The aim of this paper is to summarize the technological evolution of the oil upstream sector,
identify the causes that promoted this evolution and present not only the use of recently
proven technologies but the emerging ones.

19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
STATE OF THE ART OF ONSHORE OIL & GAS FIELDS SURFACE
FACILITIES TECHNOLOGIES
INTRODUCTION

The oil demand growth, production fluid of poorer quality, the need of capex and opex
reduction and more severe environmental regulations are probably the most important factors
that have boosted the technological evolution of the oil and gas field surface facilities during
the last decades.

Several technologies are being more frequently used, like horizontal and multilateral wells
drilling/ completion, unconventional oil recovery techniques, multiphase pumps and wet
compressors, heavy oil transportation methods, internal coatings and drag reduction agents,
leak detection systems, multiport valves, high performance separators, new developments on
oil and produced water treatment, heavy oil upgrading processes, vapor recovery units and
more reliable and sophisticated control and communication systems.

Depending on the case, the previously mentioned technologies can cause capex and opex
savings, increase of energy efficiency, add of value to products and better use of human
resources, among others.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the state of the art of onshore oil and gas
field surface facilities rather than presenting new technologies. In fact, most of the
technologies cited have been developed many years ago and, also they have been widely
used in other sectors of the oil and gas industry, particularly in the offshore.

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT DRIVERS

Several factors have boosted during the last decades the technological evolution of the
onshore oil and gas field surface facilities.

Of course such factors did not affect at the same time and in the same way the development
of these facilities in the different regions of the world. In fact, some regions have been
influenced by specific situations that did not take place in other areas.

Nevertheless, identifying the common factors that have promoted the technological evolution
of these facilities may help to predict the areas that will exhibit the most important
developments during the coming years.

In the last two decades, the world primary oil consumption grew approximately sixteen
percent per decade. Despite the current high price, several prominent organizations have
predicted that oil demand will continue rising. At present, about thirty six percent of the world
primary energy demand is satisfied by oil.

These conditions together with the conventional reserves levels have made profitable the
development of unconventional sources of oil such as heavy oils (bitumen, extra-heavy oil
and heavy oil), which require the use of specific technologies for extraction, transfer and
upgrading.

In general, the need of capex and opex reduction has been another important driven factor.
Because of that, high performance separation, treatment and heat exchange technologies
have been rapidly accepted.

In some cases, the high in-field energy demand together with the high fuel prices have
promoted the use of electrical energy generation systems of higher efficiency than the open
cycle ones.

19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
In addition, stricter environmental regulations were developed by the governments. Onshore
oil and gas field surface facilities developments had to deal with more severe restrictions
regarding atmosphere vents, discharges to natural water courses and solid wastes disposal.

These regulations have driven, among others, the use of closed systems, vents recovery
units, acid gas recovery and injection systems, specific treatment for produced water and
solid wastes disposal as well as more reliable leak detection systems.

Furthermore, the high demand and limited availability of skilled human resources have
promoted to make an optimum use of them. This condition, together with the need of online
information and costs reduction for remote areas operation have caused the use of more
reliable and sophisticated control and communications systems.

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS

The onshore oil and gas field surface facilities can be divided into stages, according to its
specific purposes. The limits among these stages are not clearly defined. In fact, some
technologies involve the execution of more than one stage in a single step.

The Figure No. 1 shows a typical block diagram of onshore oil and gas field surface facilities.





















Figure No. 1 – Typical Block Diagram, Onshore Oil and Gas Field Surface Facilities

Stages shown above fall into two categories: fluids extraction/ transportation and fluids
processing. Following, the most relevant technological developments associated to these
categories and those related to automation, control and communication systems will be
summarized
1
.
FLUIDS EXTRACTION AND TRANSPORTATION

• Horizontal and Multilateral Wells

In the last decade, thousands of horizontal and multilateral wells have been drilled
worldwide.


1
The gas treating and conditioning technologies are not covered by this work. An excellent review of the
state of the art of them can be found in the paper “Are We Reaching a Mature Age in Gas
Technologies?” (Jorge Foglietta).

Wellhead Gathering
Phases
Separation
Dehydration
&
Desalting
Further
Processing
Storage
&
Delivery
Skimming Filtration
Softening
&
Deaeration
Disposal/
Reinjection
Disposal
Cleanup
Compression
Treating
&
Conditioning
Gas
Pipelines
Wellhead Gathering
Phases
Separation
Dehydration
&
Desalting
Further
Processing
Storage
&
Delivery
Skimming Filtration
Softening
&
Deaeration
Disposal/
Reinjection
Disposal
Cleanup
Compression
Treating
&
Conditioning
Gas
Pipelines
19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
Apart from the reduction of total drilling and completion costs, the use of horizontal and
multilateral wells simplifies the gathering system and reduces the number of separation
stations, providing significant capex and opex reductions.

Also, the use of this drilling/completion approach could even make viable the exploitation
of environmentally sensitive areas.

• Enhanced Oil Recovery

Several technologies for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) are available. The majority of them
have been developed during the 20
th
century; the most applied ones being those that
resulted more cost-effective for conventional oil recovery, like waterflooding and gas
injection.

Nevertheless, neither waterflooding nor gas injection are suitable techniques for the
recovery of heavy oil, which constitutes undoubtedly a source of significant importance for
the future.

Therefore, taking into account that surface facilities are greatly influenced by the recovery
technology used, the main heavy oil extraction technologies are mentioned below.

The Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage technique (SAGD) uses horizontal drilling
techniques to excavate, at least, two drill holes, one through the bitumen bearing
strata, and one or more immediately below. One hole is used as steam injector and
the other as producer. Steam liquefies the bitumen which drips down into the lower
tunnel or tunnels where it is pumped to the surface.

The Vapor Extraction method (VAPEX) uses a similar arrangement of horizontal
tunnels as does SAGD but which uses liquefied ethane or butane to dissolve the
bitumen rather than steam.

The Toe to Heel Air Injection approach (THAI): somewhat analogous to SAGD, THAI
utilizes combustion rather than steam to liquefy the bitumen. The operator ignites and
burns a portion of the bitumen deposit in a controlled manner and the melted portion
in close proximity to the burn drips down into recovery tunnels drilled below.

The Radio-Frequency/Critical Fluid technique (RF/CF): wells are drilled into the shale
strata. Raytheon's RF transmitters are then located into the well. The transmitters emit
a signal at a frequency that uniformly heats the shale, liquefying the trapped
petroleum. Supercritical carbon dioxide is then pumped into the formation to extract
the oil from and carry it to a producing well. The carbon dioxide is separated from the
oil at the surface and reprocessed.

• Multiphase Pumps and Wet Compressors

Conventional pumps and compressors have been used to move liquid and gas
respectively. Every time both phases were present into the stream to be moved, a phase
separation was needed in order to apply these traditional technologies.

Currently, technologies to move multiphase streams are available. Multiphase pumps/
compressors have been successfully used in several applications.

The use of these types of equipment for moving production streams from wells provides
substantial advantages. The most evident one is the capex and opex reduction of surface
facilities. One multiphase pump system can be used instead of a conventional phase
separation station, which normally involves separators, tanks, pumps, compressors,
auxiliary services, etc.

In addition, this technology entails lower emissions to the environment (vents and drains
systems are not longer required), pipelines cost reduction (only one pipeline is needed
19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
instead one for each phase), potential production increase (multiphase pumps can
operate at low suction pressures), among others.

Multiphase pumps can continuously operate with GVF (gas volumetric fraction) as high as
97%. Systems capable to operate at higher GVF are generally named “wet compressors”.

• Heavy Oil Transportation Methods

Basically, there are four heavy oil transportation methods. The most common one is
dilution.

Dilution: it can be used in open or close cycle. In order to achieve acceptable
transportation conditions, up to 30% in volume of diluent is normally required. Light
natural gas condensate is commonly used as diluent.

To heat the oil. Pipelines expansion, corrosion rate, number of pumping and heating
stations and heat looses constitute special areas of concern.

Oil in water emulsion. This method consists in dispersing the heavy oil in water. The
emulsion obtained is stabilized by surfactants. Up to now, there is no process for
breaking such emulsion.

Core annular flow. In this method a water film separates the oil core from the pipeline
inside wall so the frictional pressure loss is similar to the one for water alone.

• Internal Coatings and Drag Reduction Agents

The application of pipeline internal coatings constitutes a proven alternative for reducing
maintenance costs (lower corrosion rates), energy consumption (improvement of pipelines
hydraulic characteristics) and pipelines replacement costs. New internal coatings and
application procedures offer several advantages compared with established technologies.

Drag reduction agents (DRA) are chemical agents used to reduce the frictional pressure
loss caused by turbulence in the pipeline. Basically, the use of these chemicals increases
the pipelines capacity and reduces the energy consumption.

• Leak Detection

Law requirements and minimizing the environmental and financial impact of a potential
leak can motivate the operators to install leak detection systems.

Basically, the available leak detection systems fall into two categories: externally based
(direct) and internally based (inferential).

Externally based methods detect leaking product outside the pipeline. Internally based
methods, also known as computational pipeline monitoring (CPM), use instruments to
monitor internal pipeline parameters.

During the last decade, several technological advances have been reported for both
categories.

19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
• Multiport Valves

A multiport valve is a valve which body has numerous inlets and two outlets. It allows the
gathering of numerous production streams in a single one and easily segregating one of
them for testing purposes.

This type of valve offers a lower capex and more compact solution than the traditional
production/ test manifold.

FLUIDS PROCESSING

• High Performance Separators

Separators have been used in the oil and gas industry for more than one hundred years.
In order to develop optimum designs, this type of equipment has been the object of a
large quantity of studies worldwide.

Nowadays, several types of high performance separators are available. These separators
provide capex savings due to the smaller size. Also, opex savings related to lower
chemical products consumption have been reported.

Basically, the higher efficiencies lie in novel designs of inlet distributors, liquid-liquid
coalescers, mist eliminators, baffles, etc.

Such devices have been considerably improved by means of CFD (Computational Fluid
Dynamics). CFD is the systematic application of computing systems and computational
solution techniques to mathematical models formulated to describe and simulate fluid
dynamic phenomena.

• Oil Treatment

The technological advances in oil dehydration and desalting have basically consisted in
equipment design improvements.

Novel proprietary equipment designs combine the application of heat, electrical fields and
high performance separation internals to provide compact and efficient pieces of
equipment.

Depending on the case, advantages associated to these new designs are lower oil looses,
higher gravity oil to sales, lower fuel consumption, lower chemicals consumption and
lower BS&W cuts.

• Produced Water Treatment

The produced water treatment field has shown a substantial number of technological
developments that cover equipment design improvements of established technologies
(e.g. gravity separators, induced gas flotation units, multimedia filters) and new
technologies.

Some recent and emerging technologies are: ultrafiltration and microfiltration for de-oiling;
biological treatments for soluble pollutant removal and reverse osmosis, electrodialysis
and Freeze Thaw Evaporation
®
for salinity reduction.

Each one of such developments has a specific application range as well as benefits that
depend on the particular case
2
.


2
For further details, see the paper “Overview of Emerging Produced Water Treatment Technologies”
(Hayes & Arthur).
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19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
• Heavy Oil Upgrading Processes

Three technologies are the most frequently used: visbreaking, delayed coking and solvent
deasphalting.

The visbreaking consists in a thermal process. Basically, four streams are obtained
from an atmospheric column: gas, naphtha, light gas oil and heavy residue.
Depending on the conversion degree, the synthetic oil produced (a mix of cracked and
non-cracked matter) may be unstable during the storage and transport.

In the delayed coking, the feed is heated and sent to chambers that provide the
residence time needed to allow cracking reactions to take place. Inside the chambers,
a gas stream and coke are produced. The gas stream is fractionated in a column,
obtaining gas, naphtha and gas oil products. The coke retains most of sulfur and
heavy metals contained in the feed.

The solvent deasphalting process basically consists in the separation of asphalt (oil
heaviest constituent) by means of washing the oil with a solvent. Three main products
are obtained from this process: deasphalted oil, asphalt and sour water. Usually,
propane or a propane-butane mix is used as solvent. The asphalt contains most of the
contaminants that were present in the feed.

• Vapor Recovery Units

Light hydrocarbons flashed off oil storage tanks constitute an environmental concern and
a valuable product.

One way to prevent these emissions and obtaining economic savings is to install a VRU
(vapor recovery unit). Basically, the available technologies are refrigeration and
adsorption/ absorption.

The refrigeration technology can use rotary or vane compressors. If a source of high
pressure gas or vapor is available, the vapor recovery unit can use an ejector instead of a
compressor.

VRUs are relatively simple systems that can capture about 95 percent of the Btu-rich
vapors for sale or for use onsite as fuel.

AUTOMATION, CONTROL AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

The degree of automation of oil and gas fields has significantly changed in the last decades.
Digital instrumentation, more reliable and sophisticated control systems and SCADA
(Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems have become an industry standard.

The use of these technologies and intelligent software modules allows the remote operation
and control of facilities in a safe manner, to make better use of human resources, to optimize
the production and energy consumption and to reduce maintenance and downtime costs.

Also, the corporate systems have been radically improved. A few years ago, these systems
were limited to receive certain information from the operating systems. In most of the cases,
this information was not comprehensive enough for supporting a decision making process.

Currently, corporate systems are capable to provide comprehensive and real time
information, to organize such information in a proper manner for supporting the decision
making processes and to take actions over the operating systems.


19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
Undoubtedly, additional technological developments could be mentioned within the three
categories. The above descriptions are not intended to be thorough but to provide an
overview of the state of the art of onshore oil and gas field surface facilities.

The table included in the Appendix 1 shows a summarized analysis.

ATTEMPTING A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

We believe that the horizontal and multilateral drilling/ completion approach and multiphase
pumps will be dominant technologies in the future because of its benefits. Therefore, we think
that the future oil and gas field will have a simpler gathering system and a lower relative
number of separation stations.

Considering the important role of unconventional reserves, facilities for heavy oil extraction,
transportation and upgrading will be more and more common.

Also, in order to counteract the permitting and wellsite field injection constraints in some
areas, we expect new developments associated to some produced water treatment
technologies, particularly salinity reduction processes, capable to produce an outlet for
surface discharge.

In addition, we consider that the remote operation of surface facilities will become an industry
standard due to the high demand and limited availability of skilled human resources. The
corporate systems will need to be improved in order to allow complete off-site management.

Finally, our belief is that the development of compact and efficient pieces of equipment will
continue based on the offshore projects increasing capacities. Then, we think that these new
technological developments will be adopted by the onshore surface facilities.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Usually, the selection of technologies for the development of surface facilities consists in a
complex process due to the large number of factors that influence the decisions.
Nevertheless, the following general recommendations are proposed.

• Make sure business goals are properly considered in order to align the technology
selection process with them. Business goals (e.g. performance indexes, emissions, etc.)
associated to new oil and gas field development may differ from those related to a mature
oil and gas field development.

• Take into account that, to a certain extent, technologies are site sensitive. The different
regions of world have its own cultural characteristics and business premises. A
technology successfully used for a given project in a certain area may not be the best
solution to a similar project in another region.

• Begin with the end in mind. Execute master-planning studies for the whole field life. Take
into account the life cycle cost of technological alternatives. Carry out sensitive analysis to
check if technologies pre-selected are flexible enough to face up to potential changes of
fluid properties, conditions, etc.

• Pay special attention to the scale factor. Optimum solutions for small fields may result
unsuitable for large fields.

• Don’t lose the global perspective. The onshore oil field surface facilities constitute a whole
system. Optimizing each facility operation does not lead necessarily to the optimization of
the system.

19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
CONCLUSIONS

This paper presented an overview of the state of the art of onshore oil and gas field surface
facilities as well as general factors that have driven its technological development.

The onshore oil and gas field surface facilities have experienced a technological evolution
during the last decades. Most of the technologies involved have been previously used in other
sectors of the oil and gas industry, particularly in the offshore.

Taking into account the information presented, this paper also proposes a look into the future
regarding the configuration of those facilities.

Finally, some general recommendations are provided for approaching the technologies
selection process.
19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
APPENDIX 1 – SUMMARY TABLE

Conventional State-of-the-art Advantages
• Vertical wells • Horizontal and
multilateral wells
• Gathering system simplification
• Reduced number of separation
stations
• Exploitation of environmentally
sensitive areas
• Primary recovery
• Waterflooding
• Gas injection
• Enhanced Oil Recovery
(EOR) techniques:
_Steam Assisted
Gravity Drainage
(SAGD)
_Vapor Extraction
(VAPEX)
_Toe to Heel Air
Injection (THAI)
_Radio Frequency (RF)
/ Critical Fluid (CF)
Extraction
• Exploitation of heavy oil reservoirs
• Separation and
pumping/ compression
stations
• Multiphase pumps/ wet
compressors
• Separation and associated
equipment are not needed
• Reduced plot
• Simpler operation and
maintenance
• Transportation system
simplification
• Lower emissions to the
environment
• Potential production increase
• NA • Heavy oil transportation
technologies
_Dilution
_Heating
_Oil in water emulsion
_Core annular flow
• Exploitation of heavy oil reservoirs
• Internal coatings and
drag reduction agents
• Improved internal
coatings and drag
reduction agents
• Lower corrosion rate
• Lower energy consumption
• Rudimentary leak
detection systems
• Improved leak detection
systems
• Lower environmental and financial
impact of a potential leak
• Traditional production/
test manifold
• Multiport valves • Lower capex
• Reduced plot
• NA • Flow assurance • Lower downtime costs
• Chemicals products • Improved chemicals
products
• Higher performance
• Lower chemicals consumption
• Side effects reduction
• General accepted
design rules
• Computing Fluid
Dynamics (CFD)
• Higher performance
• Smaller equipment
• High performance
separation internals
• Smaller equipment
• Lower chemicals consumption
• Continuous solids
removal systems
• Downtime reduction
• Conventional phase
separators
• Vortex separators • Smaller equipment
• Lower chemicals consumption
• Shell and tube heat
exchangers
• High performance heat
exchangers
• Smaller equipment
• Higher energy recovery
19th WPC preprint paper. For delegate use only. Do not circulate.
19th World Petroleum Congress, Spain 2008
Forum 03: Application of advanced E&P technology in challenging field developments

© World Petroleum Council
Conventional State-of-the-art Advantages
• Oil electrostatic treaters • Electrical field
application
improvements
• High performance
separation internals
• Smaller equipment
• Lower oil looses
• Higher gravity oil to sales
• Lower fuel consumption
• Lower chemicals consumption
• Lower BS&W cuts
• Produced water
established
technologies
• Equipment design
improvements of
established
technologies
• Ultrafiltration and
microfiltration (de-oiling)
• Biological treatments
(soluble pollutant
removal)
• Reverse osmosis,
electrodialysis and
FTE
®
(salinity reduction)
• Smaller equipment
• Water quality improvement
• Lower energy consumption
• Lower chemicals consumption
• NA • Heavy oil upgrading
processes
• Visbreaking
• Delayed coking
• Solvent deasphalting
• Oil quality improvement
• Atmospheric vent • Vapor recovery units • Lower environmental impact
• Recovery of valuable products
• Attended facilities
• Local control
• Rudimentary corporate
systems
• Digital instrumentation
• More reliable and
sophisticated control
systems
• SCADA
• Improved corporate
systems
• Off-site field management
• Remote operation and control of
facilities
• Better use of human resources
• Production and energy
consumption optimization
• Lower maintenance and downtime
costs
• Engines and turbines
for electrical energy
generation (open cycle)
• More efficient engines
and turbines for
electrical energy
generation
• Cogeneration
• Combined cycles
• Higher energy efficiency
• Lower fuel consumption


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