Description
- Heavy Crude Oil
- Large oilfield between two States
- CHOPS field
- High sand production rates
- High TAN for the crude oil (due to high proportion of naphthenic acids)
- High water cuts > 80-90%
- Tough emulsions due to solids and naphthenic acids
- Low free-water, ~60% of the water was emulsified
Challenge
- A large CPF was built to gather, process, measure, and export the production from both states in a single place
- A claim was presented by the other state demanding production quantification before crossing the border for production allocation and royalty liquidation
- After extensive negotiations with the claiming state, an agreement that required new metering facilities before crossing the border was reached
- The new metering facilities would have to minimize error and uncertainty while avoiding duplicating the recently built processing facilities
Project Development
- It was agreed that a reduction of the water cut below 20% would reduce error in metered oil to acceptable levels using a Coriolis meter plus a water cut transmitter
- Partial dewatering facility designed to achieve the objective
- A single-stage separation process was defined to reduce investment and footprint
- H-HT designed and customized for the application
Outcome
- Custom H-HT design surpassed KPI, 1% WC was achieved
- Special inlet device allowed for easy free-water breakout
- Eccentric FT design maximized heat transfer into the emulsion phase minimizing water heating, reducing required duty and gas consumption
- Temperature balance:
- Emulsion Inlet: ~104°F
- Produced Water Outlet: ~113°F
- Treated Oil Outlet: ~149°F
- Take-Away: sound and innovative solutions were implemented to approach complex problems while minimizing investments
