Page 40 - Oil and Gas Production Handbook An Introduction to Oil and Gas Production

4 The oil and gas process

The oil and gas process is the process equipment that takes the product
from the wellhead manifolds and delivers stabilized marketable products, in
the form of crude oil, condensates or gas. Components of the process also
exist to test products and clean waste products such as produced water.

An example process for
the StatoilHydro Njord
floater is shown on the
next page. This is a
medium size platform
with one production
train and a production of
40-45,000 barrels per
day (bpd). This is actual
production, after the
separation of water and
gas. The associated
gas and water are used
for onboard power
generation and gas
reinjection. There is only one separation and gas compression train. The
water is treated and released (it could also have been reinjected). This
process is quite representative for hundreds of similar sized installations,
and only one more complete gas treatment train for gas export is missing to
form a complete gas production facility, Njord sends the oil via a short
pipeline to a nearby storage floater. On gravity base platforms, FPSO
(Floating Production and Storage Operations) and onshore plants this
storage will be a part of the main installation if the oil is not piped out directly.
Photo: Norsk Hydro ASA

A large number of connections to chemicals, flares etc. are shown, these
systems are described separately.

Nård main process illustration (next page): StatoilHydro

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