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Innovative Approach to Increase Name Plate Capacity of Oil and Gas Gathering Centre



Author(s)

Chirag Parikh, Abdulaziz Al-Saeed, Bader Mahmoud and Rajiv Kukreja

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DOI:10.17265/1934-8975/2015.10.004

Production Operations (North Kuwait) Team, Kuwait Oil Company, Ahmadi 61008, Kuwait

Purpose: The oil and gas gathering and processing facility of Kuwait Oil Company is built with a nameplate capacity of X MBOPD (thousand barrels oil per day) with 50% water cut. However, the facility was operating with a water cut of 35%. This comprehensive technical study was conducted to evaluate possibility of increasing oil processing capacity of this facility in line with current lower water cut and other operational flexibilities available in the facility without utilizing its design margin. Topic: This paper shares an innovative approach to increase name plate capacity of oil and gas processing facility utilizing available operational flexibility and operational margins with minor modification. It shares a case study where facility capacity is increased by around 19% without utilizing design margins of equipment or pipeline. Method: The study includes theoretical verification and analysis of all major equipment and piping to identify available capacity and limitation, in order to utilize available additional margin and to propose debottleneck options to overcome limitations. Achievement: The study confirmed that, facility name plate capacity can be revised from X MBOPD (with 50% w.c (water cut)) to X + 32 MBOPD (with: 45% w.c) minor modification in separator and utilizing margin available in feed specification of desalter trains.

Debottlenecking, capacity enhancement, production.