Application of Air Cooled Heat Exchangers for Condensation of Natural Gas Liquids from Associated Petroleum Gas

Application of Air Cooled Heat Exchangers for Condensation of Natural Gas Liquids from Associated Petroleum Gas

Crude oil

Cooling systems

Gasoline

Oil fields

Operating costs

Heat exchangers

The paper describes a method for increasing a yield of stock-tank oil by reducing liquid carryover with associated petroleum gas at crude processing facilities (CPF) of one oil field in Iraq by cooling the feed stream in air cooled heat exchangers. An integrated model of the field has been built consisting of: models of well tubings, models of wellhead chokes, an integrated model of oil gathering network, a model of air cooled heat exchangers, a model of material and heat balance of CPF. The air cooler performance in oil treatment has been asessed in accordance with ambient temperature profile. The main advantages and disadvantages of using the proposed scheme are shown in the article.Considered in the article the air cooler has been originally designed and manufactured for use in another field. Therefore, one of the tasks was to validate the applicability of that air cooler unit in the oil treatment process for a field with facilities in-place. The novelty of the study lies in the non-standard use of an air cooled heat exchangers in the oil treatment.The results of simulation of using air cooling units in oil treatment and the actual operation of air coolers showed increased output of crude oil at the CPF at low capital and operating costs.

D022S082R001

2021

Prokopev, Mikhail

Vorobev, Ilya

Rakhmangulov, Yulay

Litvak, Egor

conferencePaper

10.2118/205890-MS

https://doi.org/10.2118/205890-MS