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production facility
A proposed design can improve a production facility that
handles sour crudes containing saline water. The design
provides low crude oil shrinkage during stabilization and
optimizes H2S removal, particularly in summer.
A project in the Middle East used the design, and this article
discusses a case study for the design based on a similar
Middle East crude and the same product specifications and
ambient temperatures as in the actual project.
The case discussed has slightly different oil shrinkage values
and cost savings than the actual project, but the final
conclusions are the same.
Production facilities
For more then a decade, companies have based the design of
production facilities for sour crude oil associated with saline
water cut on the integration of desalting, production, gas
gathering, and compression units.
Such integration has the advantage of further vapor recovery
(control of rpv over upper and lower bounds), use of very lowpressure gas instead of flaring, H2S removal, and energy
waste minimization all in one plant.
These production facilities have an optimized design based
on capital and operating costs that meet oil stabilization and
H2S-removal requirements.
These facilities typically have three-stage separation in which
the third stage is a column with the dual-purpose function of
H2S removal and crude stabilization.
In these designs, the recommended desalter location is
between the second and third-stage separators. This location
minimizes the energy required for reboosting the pressure at