Ensuring quality treatment, transportation and delivery of oil is a top priority task in production operations. To this end Varyoganneftegaz is implementing the program to reconstruct the booster pumping station (BPS) in the Verkhne2Kolik2Yoganskoye oil field.
This past year of 2004 was extremely intense for the personnel of the Base for oil and gas treatment and transportation at Varyoganneftegaz. The year-on-year growth of the company's oil production by over 17 percent translated into considerably higher volumes of production liquids that were treated to stock oil that meets the official quality standards.
The bulk of production growth came from the Verkhne-Kolik-Yoganskoye (VKY) oil field. In 2004, the field's oil treatment and transportation facilities became top operational priorities and proved to be up to the task of intensive field development.
The booster pumping station (BPS) at VKY was commissioned in 1989. The configuration of equipment and the process flow for oil treatment are based on standard technical solutions used for water separation and preliminary disposal: two separation stages, a heating block, a dynamic settling block, and tank park of the disposal facilities. The unit's annual design capacity is 5 mln t of liquids and 500 mcm of gas.
In 2003, production from the field was 1.855 mln t of oil. Longterm projections for production from the field showed a slow decline. Field infrastructure thus did not require development or considerable investment. Expenditures were to go into equipment maintenance. Everything changed radically with the arrival of TNK-BP specialists. After examining the actual potential of the reservoirs, they designed and by April 2004 implemented geological and technical measures that led to a considerable production growth. The production results for 2004 are 2.344 mln t of oil.
The limited capacity of the first stage of the separation block, as well as of the flaring system could have become the main constraining factors for production growth. Liquid entrainment during separation became an acute problem. Velocity of gas flows out of the oil and gas separators reached as much as 140 m per second. To solve this problem, a 100-cubic-meter separator was quickly assembled and put in operation, while the flaring system was reconstructed. The project was executed by the design bureau of the Capital Construction Department of Varyoganneftegaz. The construction of the facility was done by Nizhnevartovskneftemontazhspetsstroi.
Analysis of the actual performance of the BPS was conducted by contracted experts from the SibNIINP Institute. The team headed by Yevgeny Glovatsky performed instrumental measurements to determine the exact volumes of incoming associated gas and of liquid entrainment. The team established the dew point under the current parameters of oil separation and determined the composition of gas after each stage. The current gas factor was established for the oil field, and the material balance drawn.
Based on the obtained results, the specialists from Varyoganneftegaz together with their colleagues from TNK-BP's Technology Block outlined the main directions of reconstructing the operating equipment. Considerable technical assistance was provided by Mike Powers, a BP expert on the PIPESIM and HYSIS packages.
One of the promising directions for further development is the use of latest intensifying internal elements that make it possible to increase efficiency or to reduce dimensions of technological units. The intensifying elements (coalescers and shelf sections) are made of stainless steel that ensures durability. Use of intensifying internal elements will also improve quality metrics: up to 0.1 mg/cu. m for liquid entrainment by gas flow, and up to 40 mg/cu. m for petroleum products content in water.
At present, analysis of the intensifying internal elements of separators and settling tanks is being done jointly with Kvaerner Process Systems and NTK ModulNefteGazKomplekt. Analysis of equipment to be used for treating bottom water (hydrocyclones) is being done together with Global Process Systems.
The initial stage of reconstructing the BPS is presently approaching completion, its commissioning in late March of this year will ensure treatment of projected production volumes.
