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Abstract

To meet the future sustainability requirement(1,2), major energy suppliers in the world have been pursuing the highest standards of environmental policy to contribute the conservation of natural resources through operation excellence and energy optimization. Abqaiq Plant is the largest oil stabilization plant in the world. A small improvement in separation process could lead to significant energy saving and reduction of CO2 release for its large scale. The crude oil processing units at Abqaiq Plant have two major functions. First, crude feeds from oil field are stripped with steam which increases the moisture content of offgas from the oil stabilization column. Second, the low pressure offgas is pressurized to 450 psig for separation of NGL products. The final NGL product is transferred to the downstream refinery for further processing and the offgas from the NGL facility is transferred to the downstream gas plants for sulfur removal. For years, gas pipelines have been suffering from back pressure caused by liquid condensate accumulation in the pipeline. To reduce the back pressure, enhancement of NGL recovery is required but the challenge is to lower the deethanizer operation temperature without hydrate formation. As a part of the global downstream pipeline and plant optimization program, Saudi Aramco has invested $65MM capital expense for triethylene glycol (TEG) dehydration unit(3,4,5) at the world largest oil stabilization facility to reduce the frequency of pipeline scraping. The success of this project would eliminate 2 million pipeline scraping cost and 40 million of liquid condensate reprocessing and liquid flaring every year. The liquid condensate flaring has imposed a serious adverse environmental impacts and risk to operator exposure to hydrogen sulfide. Commissioning of the TEG dehydration unit was initially unsuccessful for the issue of plant piping network back pressure. To achieve the full benefits of the newly implemented TEG unit, the Abqaiq Plant operation engineering unit has utilized the advanced real time optimization (RTO) model to identify the root causes of failure. Process studies including the feasibility of steady state normal operating conditions and the piping flow estimations were completed by RTO data reconciliation model. Further offline studies for pressure drop analyses on piping networks were completed with additional pipe diameters and roughness data. The location of back pressure was identified by the advanced engineering tool. A new operation transition plan was developed to avoid pipeline back pressure. As a result of this new approach, the NGL production rate was successfully increased by 15 MBD which accounted for $200MM of annual revenue. The commissioning team has also demonstrated a successful story from collaboration of interdisciplined team within the company.

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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609-pdb.350.iptc16681
2013-03-26
2024-03-29
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