Publications

The Central Plant Platform at the ONWJ field has experienced massive integrity and sand accumulation issues due to changes in crude oil composition. The main objective is maintaining crude oil production performance and avoiding unplanned shutdowns which can lead to a high potential for production loss. The equipment that is in critical condition is FWKO-V-1A (Free water KO Drum) which receives liquid from all stations. Currently V-1A is running parallel with V-2A without any redundant unit or back up. If V-1A fails to perform, ONWJ crude production will have off-spec crude or even 50% loss of production if it fails to operate. One of the permanent mitigation methods is to install a new FWKO as a back-up or redundant unit, so Liquid Receiving System can be flexibly operated without any production interruption. The new FWKO will be installed Q42017. However, during Q1-2017 to Q4-2017, the condition of the online V-1A was also a concern due to its integrity and sand accumulation that lead to separation failure resulting in off spec crude. Hence, it was proposed to perform mitigation by converting the Electrostatic Dehydrator V-2B to emergency FWKO to replace online FWKO V-1A, so that the ONWJ field will not have to decrease 50% of total crude production (+/- 15,000 BOPD) or equivalent to US$900,000 per day of losses, once either V-1A or V-2A fail to operate and keep crude on-spec. The methodology was conducted by performing a detailed assessment, combined with operation facility verification and also a HAZOP analysis. The main challenge of the modification is that no shutdown equipment is allowed to avoid disturbance of crude production. Piping and process system modification utilizing existing piping system, tie-ins and vessel intervention is conducted, also by converting V2B from an Electrostatic Dehydration system which is an electrical-based system, into a free water KO drum as a three phase separator by internal vessel modification. By conducting this action, the potential for 50% ONWJ crude oil production losses can be avoided, including improvement and also results in managing base sediment & water (BS&W) crude to storage quality to be < 0.5% as per client specification.