INTRODUCTION

Oil field hydrocarbon processing is a sequence

of operations to transport or store oil and/or gas
in a safe and economical manner. Oil field
hydrocarbon processing also includes water
treatment of:
 Produced (effluent) water for disposal and/or
injection.
 Additional water (brackish or sea water) for
injection as water flooding.

Introduction 1
Introduction 2
Introduction 3
 Major unit operations includes:
 Gathering system: brings produced fluid to
field processing site.
 Phase separation
 Gas processing
 Oil processing
 Water processing
 Sand clean up:
Extraction.
De-oiling.
Disposal.
Introduction 4
 Engineering Design
Definition
Engineering design is an engineering scheme to
develop a creative, profitable, and safe system
for serving specific purpose under the following
constraints:
 A specific set of inputs
 A desired set outcomes
 External constraints of economical, social,
environmental, and political aspects.

Introduction 5
 Hydrocarbon Processing Design Basis
 The various modules shown will not all be
present in every system.
 The sequence of the modules may be different
from one design to another, although in
general the sequence is typical.
 The choice and sequencing is determined in
the design phase.

Introduction 6
  The primary concern of the facility designer
falls into two categories:
Phase separation: separation of gas-oil-
brine wellstream into individual phases.
Cleaning of the phases: removal of
impurities to meet sales, transportation,
re-injection specs. and/or environmental
regulations.

Introduction 7
  The selection, design and operation of field
handling equipment depend on:
Volume of the stream produced ( qo , qg , qw ).
Properties of the produced stream.
Remoteness of the field.

Introduction 8
  Important design parameters are:
Well stream composition
 Wells may have different compositions.
 No. of wells and flow rates may change
with time.
 Composition and GOR change with time.
Wellhead temperature (minimum)

Introduction 9
 Wellhead pressure and flow rate: depends
on drive mechanism and EOR technique
used:
 Water drive fields: WOR increases
with time which must be predicted.
Water injection or re-injection requires
water pumping and treating facility.
 Solution gas or gas cap drive fields:
pressure and thus production decline
with time.

Introduction 10
 Pressure and flow rate change affect
selection and design of:
 Vessels size
 Pipeline size
 Compressor HP
Design of equipment must be flexible and
adequately sized.
Design based on initial production
conditions may lead to future difficulty
and waste of resources.

Introduction 11