The Sour Oil and Gas Advanced Technology conference kicks off in Abu Dhabi next month. Make sure you are up to speed with Oil & Gas Middle East’s exclusive preview.
The massive news emanating from Abu Dhabi last month was the hotly anticipated announcement that ADNOC had selected its IOC partner for the Shah Field Development project, with Occidental Petroleum coming out victorious.
ADNOC said that Oxy will control 40% of the project while ADNOC will hold the majority 60% along with Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company, which was established in February 2010, a deal similar in composition to the one ConocoPhillips bailed on last year.
The large-scale development involves the development of high sulfur content gas reservoirs within the Shah Field, located on-shore approximately 180 km south-west of the city of Abu Dhabi.
The project will involve several gas gathering systems, construction of processing trains to process one billion cubic feet per day of gas at Shah to produce around 500 million cubic feet per day of network gas and other related hydrocarbon liquids, in addition to new gas and liquid pipelines.
The Shah gas field is integral to Abu Dhabi with its plans to boost gas production to meet mounting domestic gas demand particularly as the government develops gas-hungry power generation, desalination plants and its downstream industries such as petrochemicals.
Sour gas is highly corrosive, and generally more costly and challenging to process because of its high sulphur content, and therefore requires special handling and infrastructure.
Last April, Houston based ConocoPhillips withdrew from the US$10 billion development saying that it intended to shift its operational focus from midstream and downstream activities to upstream work.
“We are honoured that Abu Dhabi’s government has chosen Oxy to participate in this major gas project,” said Dr. Ray Irani, Occidental’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Production at the Shah Field will be an important future resource to fill the rapidly expanding regional demand for gas.”
“This is another important step in the implementation of our growth strategy and in our relationship with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The development of this field under the agreement provides an exciting opportunity to create value for the people
of Abu Dhabi and for our stockholders,” said Dr. Irani.
ADNOC is already in the process of developing the field with the majority of project engineering procurement and construction contracts already awarded, as well as the process control package, awarded to Honeywell last year. Production from the field is scheduled to begin in 2014.
Capital expenditures are estimated to be in the range of $10 billion for the project with Oxy’s share proportional to its ownership.
SOGAT 2011
Key figures involved in the project, including Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company CEO, Saif Al Ghafli, and major technology partners already signed on to the project including Honeywell will converge in Abu Dhabi soon for the Sour Oil & Gas Advanced Technology conference, running from March 27th to 31st .
The conference couldn’t be better timed, with renewed interest, not only with Abu Dhabi’s major project dominating the local upstream news, but also with many key proposed and existing H2S-rich projects being developed or tabled for development soon.
The conference in March, held at the Abu Dhabi Hilton on the Corniche, will highlight the principal safety challenges and plans for the landmark Shah Field Development Project.
“The main highlights of this year’s SOGAT event, with principal sponsors ADNOC and Occidental, will focus on the all important HSE issues associated with the sour Shah Gas Field project in the UAE,” explained Dr. Nick Coles, founder and conference organiser of the SOGAT events.
The keynote address for the 7th International SOGAT Conference will be given by Saif Al Ghafli, CEO of Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co. Ltd (ADGDCL) and the first presentation from ADGDCL will present their strategy in ensuring that the HSE risks in the SGD project are properly managed and the technologies, system integrity requirements, standards, practices and plans will establish a benchmark for sour gas field developments for others to follow.
A key paper in the 1st International Sulphur Management Forum, a new and integral part of SOGAT 2011, will examine the HSE issues associated with fires and explosives from sulphur dust in granulated sulphur by product handling, storage and transport.
Besides the H2S problems, sour gas fields can contain significant amounts of CO2 and the 5th International CO2 Forum, now a well regarded aspect of SOGAT that has contributed since its inauguration to the CO2–EOR debate will be
sponsored by MASDAR and it is expected that a presentation on the new 3C carbon capture technology may be included in this Forum.
Additionally, papers from TOTAL and ExxonMobil will give guidelines as to how their technologies could be employed in the development of other such fields both onshore and offshore in the UAE post 2014.
With 30 plus exhibitors, SOGAT 2011 will give comprehensive coverage of international sour gas and sulphur management issues that contribute towards the requirement of delivering sweet sales gas that will contribute to the future power requirement plans for the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East as a whole.
SOGAT Highlights: Day 1:
Tuesday, March 29
07.00
Registration Sponsored by:
08.00
KEYNOTE ADDRESS Saif Ahmed Al Ghafli, CEO, Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co. Ltd, UAE
SESSION A – Chair: Kamal Morsi, ADNOC, UAE
08.10
THE SHAH GAS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT – A SYSTEMATIC HSE APPROACH TO SOUR GAS PROCESSING
In order to eliminate, reduce, mitigate, and manage the risks of the SGD Project, Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company Ltd has required an early and sustained focus on all aspects of the Health, Safety, and the Environment during the development, assessment, and implementation of the plant design, construction execution strategy, and operability assurance program.
This paper summarises the current status of the project and describes some of the key features and work processes related to handling very sour gas at a challenging site location.
These technologies, system integrity requirements, standards, practices, and plans will enable Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company Ltd to achieve its main objective of world-class HSE performance and the intention to deliver a project that will set the standard of excellence for the development of sour gas reserves for others to follow.
Abdalla Hamad Almuhairi, Tareq Sahoo, Ian Ross, Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co. Ltd, UAE and David Schulte, Rafael Mangas, Harry Melton, Fluor Energy and Chemicals, USA
08.45
SULPHUR RECOVERY TECHNOLOGY PUSHED TO THE LIMIT – DIFFICULT GAS COMPOSITIONS AND EVER TIGHTENING REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
This paper addresses the limits of commercial sulphur recovery technologies and identifies technology concepts which could comply with the regulatory framework of Oman. Results of process evaluation carried out by PDO are presented in this paper.
Rajiv Srinivasan, Esther van Soest-Vercammen, Petroleum Development Oman LCC, Oman
09.20
OPERATING CHALLENGES OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST LNG PLANT IN GAS TREATING AND SULFUR RECOVERY UNITS
This paper discusses the operating success and challenges of the world’s largest LNG plant in gas treating and sulphur recovery units during the first two years of operation.
It will discuss key process surveillances highlights and process improvements such as reduction in the SO2 slippage in TGT due to low hydrogen production, solution of sulphur pit pump repeated failure, study on frequent failure of gasket material in lean / rich solvent plate heat exchanger and elimination of frequent heater tripping problem in selexol unit.The paper will discuss in detail the solution given to each of the problems.
Sudhir U. Nayak, Qatargas, Qatar
10.30
HOW DIFFICULT SRU FEEDSTOCK WAS HANDLED IN THE WESTERN LIBYA GAS PROJECT
The Western Libya Gas Project was jointly launched by Libya’s National Oil Corp. and ENI GAS E&P for processing 10 billion Nm3/year of natural gas most of which to be transported to the Sicilian coast through a 516 km underwater pipeline across the Mediterranean Sea at a maximum depth of 1150 m.
This paper is set to describe the main challenges of this SRU project spotlighting the technologies selection criteria to handle lean acid gases while meeting high emission standards.
Lorenzo Micucci, Siirtec Nigi S.p.A., Italy
11.05
LOW ENERGY DIRECT CONTACT CONDENSER DESIGNS FOR CLAUS TAIL GAS TREATING UNITS IN DESERT ENVIRONMENTS
Fluor has invented a new Direct Contact Condenser (DCC) design that transfers as much as 50% of the trim cooling duty to the air coolers. An evaluation of a recent large-scale Middle East project indicated that this new design would result in about $20 MM in power savings over the 20-year life of the plant and an additional $70 MM in capital cost savings.
Other Claus/Hydrogenation sulfur recovery facilities can achieve significant savings in proportion to the size of the plant.
This paper provides a technical background for Fluor’s new patent pending DCC technology, and discusses the economic advantages and operational flexibility that can be realized through its implementation.
Authors: Henry Z. Kister, Thomas K. Chow, Dick B. Nielsen, Arnold E. Sanchez, Fluor Energy and Chemicals, USA
SOGAT Highlights: Day 2
Wednesday, March 30
SESSION C – Chair: Peter D. Clark, University of Calgary and ASRL, Canada
08.00 SUCCESSFUL START-UP AND OPERATION OF PUGUANG GAS PLANT Black & Veatch supplied the process engineering design for the largest gas purification plant in Asia, which was recently started up.
The Sichuan to Eastern China gas transmission project included exploration and development of the Puguang Gas Field, sour gas processing, and the transmission of sales gas via a pipeline across eight provinces to Shanghai.
The designed annual purified natural gas transmission capacity is 12 billion cubic meters, with a total sulphur production rate of 8,600 MTPD.
This project is regarded as one of the most technically challenging in China’s history. This paper will provide an account of noteworthy field activities of the authors who spent a considerable amount of time in the plant starting up and troubleshooting the units.
08.35 RUSSIAN SOUR GAS – CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITY
Of the more than 400 sour gas fields in the world, 130 are in European Russia.
Several more exist in Kazakhstan. Their development requires solving complicated engineering and environmental safety problems. How is Russia approaching development of these fields, particularly at a time when Gazprom is attempting to find new sources of gas production?
What technologies does it employ and what technologies and partners is Gazprom seeking to engage with globally? This paper will also touch on desulphurization as it applies not only to sour gas but also oil fields of high sulphur content.
09.10 IMPACT ON THE DESIGN OF SURFACE FACILITIES WHEN SOURING UP RESERVOIRS
Petroleum Development Oman LLC is currently developing the Rabab field, located in South Oman within the Harweel cluster, 14 km away from Harweel new facilities. In 2009 the company decided to integrate the development of the Rabab and the Harweel fields.
Rabab is located at a depth of 4–5 km and contains approximately 3% H2S, 16% CO2, and 300-500 ppmv mercaptans. and 200 ppmv COS. In addition, the condensate is waxy with a cloud point of 35°C.
The paper will focus on how the surface facilities will be impacted by integrating Rabab with Harweel and by the souring of the reservoirs due to miscible gas injection.
Salim Al Ojaily, Esther van Soest-Vercammen, Petroleum Development Oman LCC, Oman
