The current paper presents Acid gas flaring (AGF) project which is a "Containment Strategy" for reducing acid gas flaring. The project goal was to mitigate acid gas flaring for a single sulphur recovery unit trip. Acid gas flaring events introduce risks to personnel, impact the environment and may lead to negative operational and business outcomes. TCO implemented an automated procedure to address this problem with the goal to protect the personnel and environment, reduce operating impact and improve TCO’s reputation as a ‘good neighbor’ operating the facility.

The procedure was aimed to automate a sequence of coordinated moves across all five KTL trains. This involved decreasing sour gas and oil rates from all Crude Stabilization Units while using existing vessels to temporarily accumulate acid gas in the rich amine. Simultaneously field production was rapidly decreased by 30%. The intent of procedure was to prevent the acid-gas header pressure from rising to a point at which pressure control valves open to flare. This would ‘contain’ the acid gas thereby mitigating flaring.

TCO utilized the AGF procedure multiple times since 2012 to successfully mitigate flaring events.

Keywords:
Corrosion Inhibition, Workplace Hazard, Reservoir Surveillance, oilfield chemistry, Corrosion Management, production control, Production Chemistry, H2S management, separator, Ramp
Subjects:
Well & Reservoir Surveillance and Monitoring, Production Chemistry, Metallurgy and Biology, Processing Systems and Design, Health, Environment, Noise, chemicals, and other workplace hazards, Air emissions, Corrosion inhibition and management (including H2S and CO2)
Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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