UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM & ENERGY STUDIES

CENTRE FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION

EXECUTIVE MBA
(OIL & GAS MANAGEMENT)
SEMESTER I
YEAR: 2014 SESSION: JULY
ASSIGNMENT 2
FOR
Understanding Oi &
Gas !"siness
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Section A (20 Marks)
Write short notes on any four of the following
1. Properties and the characteristics of natural gas
2. Basic process schematics of important processes used in a refinery
3. Optimization of Refinery Operations
4. eedstoc! to Products in Petrochemical "ndustry
#. $ealth and en%ironment hazards in%ol%ed in the oil and gas industry
Section B (30 marks)
(Attempt any three)
1. &lucidate the '() *ycle.
2. $ighlight the %arious refinery configurations.
3. +iscuss the ,asics of Polymerization.
4. +escri,e in detail the method of storage of petroleum and its products in li-uid and
gaseous form.
Section C (50 marks)
(Attempt all questions. Eery question carries !0 marks)
Read the case .)as Processing at ''*. and answer the following -uestions/
Case Stu"y# $as %rocessin& at ''C
'ea! "maging0 ''* performed a lea! detection sur%ey using an optical gas imaging camera for a
company in &ast 1e2as at one of their gas processing facilities. 1he company was aware of the
new regulations coming and wanted to see what it would entail and what they should do to
prepare for it since they ha%e ne%er had any lea! detection program in place. 1he results were
amazing.
1he gas processing facility was less than a year old and we were assured that there were no gas
lea!s to ,e found. 1he field superintendent e2plained how all the e-uipment at the location was
new0 properly installed and no wearing of the e-uipment would ha%e ta!en place in this short
period of time. 3t the time of the study0 this facility was processing gas at a spot rate of 120#44
mcf per day. 3fter processing the natural gas0 the daily production %olume ,eing deli%ered to
mar!et was appro2imately 5#60 with #6 accounted for as line loss and7or fuel use.
"n less than 34 minutes0 the first lea! was detected with se%eral more following. "n all0 8 lea!s
were detected which were ine2pensi%ely rectified. 9sing the criteria and emissions factors from
the &P30 they were losing 244 mcf a day in gas. 1he worst lea! detected was coming from the
storage tan!s where the %al%e was constantly malfunctioning and releasing gas from the %ent
stac!.
3fter the repairs were made0 the company ,egan seeing an e2tra :8447day ;:21504447year< at
today=s gas prices which they were losing at >ust one facility.
1he lea! detection study >ust goes to show that the industry=s acceptance of #6 for line loss and
fuel use >ust turned the corner with new technology. 'ine loss doesn=t necessarily tell the whole
story. "t doesn=t matter whether a facility is old or new there is always the possi,ility for fugiti%e
gas lea!s and the potential to increase re%enues.
(uestions#
1. What lea! detection sur%ey did the ''* perform?
2. $ighlight the field superintendent=s analysis.
3. +iscuss the strong points of such a sur%ey ,eing conducted to find out any such lea!ages
present.
4. &%aluate the situation if the lea! detection had a failure and was not a,le to detect the
defects in the pipelines.
#. 3nalyse the case and suggest some more effecti%e measures to chec! for defects0 if any.