Facility Upgrades
Uhde has a long and successful track record in the upgrading of facilities for production processing of oil & gas. This activity runs from field investigations, concept and feasibility studies and FEED preparation through to full project delivery.
Our extensive project delivery experience in performing revamps and capacity upgrades to existing facilities typically aim to satisfy drivers such as:
- Adding new fields with differing fluids characteristics
- Enhanced production to maintain rates as reservoirs deplete
- Changes in Gas to Oil ratio throughout field lifetime
- New fields with significantly contaminant loads exceeding treating capacities, e.g. high CO2
- New market demanding enhanced recovery, e.g. increased LPG/NGL extraction for downstream petrochemicals
- Increased sales gas compression requirements as field pressure declines
- Energy conservation through the use of pinch analysis techniques and/or equipment enhancements
- Support for planned maintenance turnarounds
- Rejuvenation of aging facilities
The range of services provided by Uhde is demonstrated by the recent Reference Projects, including:
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Sasol, Mozambique: Central Processing Facility to 300 PJa - Following an earlier expansion of the Central Processing Facility (CPF) to 183 PJ/a, increased demand provided the opportunity to further expand to 240-300 PJ/a read more.
- Sasol, Mozambique: Central Processing Facility Expansion for Inhassoro Liquids - Uhde undertook a study to identify the quantity of LPG available for recovery from gas and condensate, determine the optimum tie-in for the Inhassoro condensate and select an economic process scheme for condensate processing including flare minimisation. read more.
- Esso Australia: Gas Plant Expansion Studies - Uhde conducted a series of studies into various aspects of expansion alternatives for Esso Australia’s gas production facilities. read more
- Esso Australia: Longford Onshore Impacts Liquids Handling Studies - Uhde studied the implications on existing production and processing facilities for future production forecasts, including capacity constraint and materials of construction issues. read more
- Esso Australia: LPG Truck Loading Facility - The design and engineering of a fully automated LPG truck loading facility adjacent to the existing Long Island Point Fractionation plant. read more
- Esso Australia: Turrum Oil Production Study - Uhde was commissioned to initially assist Esso Australia in the selection of the field development concept and then to define that concept into a detailed FEED package. read more
- Esso Australia: West Kingfish Booster Compression - The project involved the fabrication and installation on West Kingfish Platform of two skids modules, one containing the compressor and the other a. read more
- Jemena: Longford Compressor Station - Uhde was contracted to carry out the detailed design for the installation of an additional fourth compressor at the Longford Compressor Station and the associated modifications to accommodate the increased flow rate conditions. read more
Facilities upgrading work demands a different set of skills from greenfields projects, including:
- Use of laser scanning and photogrammetric as-built data gathering, validation and updating of existing design data and documentation
- Base line performance testing and optimization
- Knowledge of working within a live operating plant
- Specialised construction techniques such as modularisation to minimse on-site work and personnel exposure to an operating plant environment, and to improve fabrication quality.
These projects often start with a comprehensive field test run and data validation, followed by simulation and optimisation studies to determine the existing capacity and actual performance of the unit and equipment before revamp design commences.
Often also, it will be necessary to analyse equipment inspection records to determine modifications made during the operating lifetime. Sometimes supplementary Non-Destructive Tests must be performed to verify the integrity of equipment and piping or to achieve desired re-rating.
Laser-scanned as-built data can be imported into 3-D modelling of revamps in order to directly and accurately locate critical tie-in points, check for clashes of new or modified facilities with existing plant, and for constuctability planning and reviews.