Hi, I'm Mark with Kimray. Today we're going to follow the pipes on an oil and
gas well site and then explain how each piece equipment operates.
This is a wellhead, this is where it all begins. The producer has drilled his well, in this
case, has had to set a rod pump in a pumping unit in order to get the liquid
to the surface. We'll follow the wellhead and go to the flow line to start the
separation process of oil water and gas, which could be very near the equipment
or in some cases over a mile in length before it gets to the equipment in order
to be processed. So the flow line coming from the wellhead comes up to this point.
All the oil all the fluid all the gas is coming through right through this line
to this two-phase vertical separator. Gas being lighter than liquid raises to the top
of the vessel. That's where the natural gas breaks out of the well stream, comes
down this pipe and into a Kimray back pressure valve. The back pressure valve
holds constant pressure on the vessels to allow it to move liquids to the next
destination. Any gas over the setpoint will be sold down this line over to the
meter run. The gas is measured and recorded and then at this point it is
sold, typically to an outside source or a midstream company. This is a cash
register for the producer that allows him to make money off the resource
that he's brought to the surface. A second valve that's related to the sales
line is what we refer to as the flare valve. The flare valve is installed in
case of maintenance on the sales line or in the winter time of a line could
possibly freeze or further on down the line they may be tying in a new well and
pressure backs up on the existing location. What the flare valve does set
at a higher setpoint than the sale valve if that pressure is met then this
valve opens up and sends all the gas that used to be sent to the atmosphere
it's now set to a combustor or a flare to be incinerated until the condition
changes. The fluid that drops back into the bottom of the two-phase vertical
separator is controlled by a liquid level controller in this case a float
ball connected to a mechanical linkage to a dump valve. As the fluid rises it
lifts the float ball in the vessel pushing down on the mechanical linkage
which then in turn opens the mechanical dump valve the oil the water and any
solids that might be in the liquid flow down this pipe into the dump line and in
this case the dump line could go to a couple of places – it could be go to a
final destination of a storage tank, but in this case the producer needs to
further process the emulsion in order to make it sellable. This emulsion line
will go down the dump line into another vessel and that vessel is called a
heater treater. The emulsion flows into the treater at the very top of the
treater is a baffle. At that baffle the gas, which again is lighter then the
liquid, breaks out of the top comes down this pipe, comes down to here – one valve
takes us to sales - the gas to sales - the other valve takes us to flare. Once the
emulsion enters the heater treater and the gas breaks out of the top, there
is a down comer that funnels the fluid to the bottom of the treater
and at that point the emulsion starts to break loose as a result of heat applied
to the process fluid. That process fluid then relaxes its molecules and the oil
and water separates more naturally by itself the oil being lighter and
gravity than the water will float on top of the water as it reaches a setpoint.
Oil spills over comes down the downcomer pipe and then you'll see another
Kimray valve - the treater valve. only controls the liquid in the downcomer
pipe it does not control the liquid inside the vessel as the height in the
downriver pipe meets its desired level the valve will come open the liquid will
leave the valve go down the pipe and into its final destination as crude oil
into the storage tank where the midstream company purchases crude oil
from the producer and then is taken to a refinery for further processing. As the
emulsion is being processed with the use of heat provided by the fire tube more
salt water will be produced in order to control the level of salt water in the
vessel the vessel comes with what we refer to as a water siphon. The produced
water then it goes up this pipe into what we call the siphon box or the weir
box there is a designated spillover point or a siphon nipple. As the water
reaches that level the water spills over, goes down this downcomer pipe and again
the valve controls only the level in the downcomer pipe. As the liquid comes down
the pipe, the valve will come open - will come down the pipe - and then will exit to
either a fiberglass tank for storage or it will go to the water treatment plan
on this location for further processing and then will be disposed of there.
This is a recirculating line - goes into the recirculating pump from here it goes
back to the inlet of the treater; runs through the whole treater again. So,
there's a line that we can bypass the separator, and then there's a line that
we can bypass the treater, and then there's a line that we can
bypass both of them. It's all done with valving.