Page 397 - Compression Machinery for Oil and Gas

Chapter 8

Upstream Compression

Applications

†
Timothy C. Allison*, Avneet Singh and Joseph Thorp ‡
* †
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, Solar Turbines, Inc., San Diego,
‡
CA, United States, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures - North America, Houston, TX, United States

Introduction
The upstream sector of the oil and gas industry (also referred to as exploration
and production) focuses on the identification and production of natural gas from
various oil and gas fields. Compression activities in this sector are focused at the
well head and gas processing plant, where the gas is exported to midstream pro-
cesses for transport and storage. These compression applications are shown on
the left-hand side of Fig. 8.1 and include gas gathering, gas lift, reinjection, and
boost and export compression at processing plants. Subsea compression is a
specialized upstream application and is discussed in a separate chapter.
Fig. 8.2 shows the general relationship between various upstream processes
for oil and gas fields, although many installations incorporate only some of
these elements and others may exclude, combine, or rearrange some elements.
In general, upstream processes involve multiple stages of compression, separa-
tion, and treatment for preparing the produced fluids for sale. This chapter orga-
nizes discussion on the compression processes into the three general categories
of gas gathering, gas lift/reinjection, and gas processing.
Compression duties vary widely among the different upstream applications,
and even for a specific application due to the wide variation in oil and gas field
production characteristics of composition, pressure, and flow rate. These char-
acteristics vary from field to field but also over the life of a field [2]. This vary-
ing service demands flexible compressor performance to accommodate
variations in operating conditions. In addition, the economics of the upstream
industry require high availability and reliability of compression resources to
begin production from new fields as early as possible and minimize both
planned and unplanned downtime for existing facilities.

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