Page 9 - Compression Machinery for Oil and Gas

Preface

Oil and natural gas provides the world with high-density energy and feedstock
for transportation, power generation, chemical processes, and many industrial
and consumer products. The oil and gas industry produces these hydrocarbons
and then processes, transports, and distributes them to users. Almost all aspects
of the oil and gas industry require some gas compression and there are many
applications where compression is the most critical part of the production
and transport chain of hydrocarbons. For example, to transport natural gas from
the production well to a power plant, within a city gas distribution system, or to
a chemical plant, several compression facilities with complex machinery trains
are necessary. Other production-related oil and gas compression applications
include gas gathering, flash gas compression near the well, the use of the gas
for enhanced oil recovery, the recompression of gas after processing in a gas
plant, chemical plants and refineries processes, and even fuel gas compression
at power plants. Further downstream in the hydrocarbon product chain, refrig-
eration compression is used to liquefy natural gas for ease of transport by ship,
rail, or truck. Fundamentally, all natural gas must be compressed so that it can
be efficiently transported, stored, or processed. Besides conventional hydrocar-
bon gases, such as natural gas, there are many other oil and gas applications
where other nonhydrocarbon gasses such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or hydro-
gen have to be compressed.
Gas compression is thus vital for the transportation and processing of hydro-
carbon and nonhydrocarbon gasses that are required by the oil and gas industry
and their customers. For example, in North America alone there are over 9000
pipeline compression stations with nearly 40,000 individual compressors to
transport natural gas from the producer to the consumer. Similarly, gas com-
pressors are a critical part in the upstream production and downstream refining
and distribution infrastructure.
The design of compression systems for the oil and gas industry is challeng-
ing due to the environments in which these systems operate, the fact that the
operating conditions may change significantly on all time scales, and the
extremely cyclical operating demands. Additionally, the equipment is expected
to operate for long-time intervals, often many years, without interruptions for
maintenance, or unplanned shutdowns.
There are many different types of compressors and drivers that are being
used for these applications, each with different features, limits, and capabilities.

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