The Early Production Facility and Maintenance Team recently commissioned four solar powered chemical injection units to provide corrosion and hydrate inhibition on EPF-50 wells.
In a statement he made about the project, Team Leader EPF Operations & Maintenance Yousef Al-Humoud said that the increasing energy demand in North Kuwait and the present limitations with power infrastructure have led to an increased reliance on the use of temporary power systems. The challenge is therefore to explore alternative renewable energy sources that are environmentally sustainable, cost effective, and which align with KOC’s strategic energy conservation objectives.
In North Kuwait, solar power systems are utilized, but the application of the technology has been generally restricted to systems with relatively low power requirements such as SCADA. Within KOC’s North Kuwait Jurassic gas operations, there is a critical requirement to provide reliable chemical injection facilities for an increasing number of flow-lines on well sites without external power.
The recent initiative with Shell Kuwait was to develop a design package for an integrated solar powered chemical system; this was followed by the manufacture of a number of pilot skids. The units have been installed, commissioned and are now in operation for a number of critical services to enable further evaluation of the technology. The ongoing field evaluation will review lifecycle costing coupled with energy conservation and identify the most appropriate configuration for future applications, providing valuable operations input to further field development.
Project Overview
With the continued increase in energy demands in North Kuwait and limitations with present power infrastructure, there is a reliance on the use of temporary power systems, primarily diesel generators. Solar power systems are utilized, but the application of the technology has been generally restricted to systems with relatively low power requirements such as SCADA. A challenge is to provide chemical injection (corrosion and hydrate inhibition) for an increasing number of flow-lines on well sites without external power.
A recent initiative was to investigate and study technologies to reduce the reliance on temporary power systems for well site chemical injection and also align with the KOC’s strategic objective of energy conservation with the application of renewable energy systems.
Within the North Kuwait Jurassic gas development efforts, there is a critical requirement for reliable chemical injection systems at each of the well sites. Carbon steel is generally selected for flow-lines that require continuous chemical injection for effective corrosion inhibition. Additionally, as the wells mature and begin to produce more water, there is a further requirement for chemical injection to maintain the flow integrity of the systems by mitigating hydrate formation. As external power is not available at the well sites, corrosion and hydrate mitigation by chemical injection is performed using temporary pumps powered by local diesel generators. As the present use of diesel generators does not fulfil the availability requirements or align with the KOC energy conservation strategy, there was a need to identify an environmentally sustainable chemical injection method.
Project
In conjunction with Shell Kuwait, a design package was developed for a solar-powered integrated chemical system followed by the manufacture of a number of pilot skids. The units were installed and are operational, and they enable further evaluation of the technology by using two system configurations. The field evaluation will review lifecycle costing coupled with energy conservation and identify the most appropriate configuration for North Kuwait Jurassic gas applications. This will provide valuable operations input for field development.
The fundamental components of the chemical injection system are as follows:
- Photovoltaic array with integral support structure (conforming to IEC 60904).
- Power system charge controller and battery bank. System autonomy - the battery bank is designed to support the average continuous load for a period of 5 days in the event of little or no charging.
- Modular design that can be expanded.
- Unit split into sub systems for maintainability.
- Local safeguarding and control system.
- Interface with external network to provide remote monitoring and operation, all suitable for installation in hazardous areas.
System benefits include the following:
- Proven reliability of all components.
- Remote monitoring.
- Accurate dose rate measurement enabling optimization.
- Reduced logistic requirement chemical and diesel.
- Reduced contract hire cost for pumps and generators.
- Flexibility, skid mounted transportable units.
System configurations
Single Chemical unit (Corrosion inhibition) Dual Chemical unit (Corrosion & Hydrate inhibition)
10l/hr injection (turndown ratio 10:1) 2 x 10l/hr injection (turndown ratio 10:1)
Coriolis flow measurement (+/- 0.2%) Coriolis flow measurements (+/- 0.2%)
2 cubic meter storage capacity 1 cubic meter storage capacity for each chemical
5 days autonomous operation 5 days autonomous operation
7 Solar panels 12 Solar panels
Battery 1689 Ah – spare capacity for other devices Battery 2808 Ah – spare capacity for other devices
Ability to interface with current SCADA Ability to interface with current SCADA