PRODUCTION • PROCESSING • HANDLING
PREVENTION SMART LEAK
Yves Marinoff describes how a chemical injection package enables MEG injection for extraordinary requirements on vibrations and noise emissions
T
he thirst for the coveted raw product of natural gas remains unquenched, despite the crisis in oil and gas. Each year, the global quantity of drilling platforms increases – their number has gone up by 25% in just the past seven years alone. In the course of this, locations in coastal regions or in the vicinity of animal nesting areas have also been developed. As a result, the pressure on manufacturers of platform components to adapt their products to environmental demands is on the rise. T ese manufacturers must ensure a
safe process without disturbances while at the same time providing for the greatest possible protection of people and nature. T is requires a departure from standard solutions towards an increasingly fl exible product design, one that takes governmental regulations, standards and
customer specifi cations into account - all of which are currently rising greatly in stringency. For this reason, Lewa relies upon intensive project management and excellently trained engineers for its chemical injection packages, to optimise the customised design engineering with regard to factors such as noise emissions and vibrations, as well as the prevention of leaks. From the date of their discovery in 1811, gas hydrates were overlooked for nearly 100 years after as having been only a “chemical curiosity” – until gaining relevance at the beginning of the 20th century as the result of ice-like entities causing pipelines to break down. In the meantime, this problem was met with the injection of various substances – what are referred to as inhibitors. Monoethylene glycol (MEG) is among them. T is
organic compound has the benefi t that it is not only suitable for the prevention of hydrate formation, but also for gas drying. Furthermore, MEG can for the most part be reclaimed from the process, thus being capable of being reused. Not only does this help to preserve the environment, it also lowers the necessity of transporting the chemical to drilling platforms.
TRIED-AND-TESTED SYSTEM IN CUSTOMISED DESIGN VARIATIONS Due to the two MEG application options, it can be used on an oil rig for two components. For one, it is intermittently injected into the borehole top between the upper main valve and the throttle valve to prevent the formation of hydrates. For another, an injection into the cooler of the gas export compressor for the purpose
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