SURFACE FACILITIES

PAB 2073
Mrs Putri Nurizatulshira Buang

Topic Outline
Introduction
Production facilities layout
Land based production facilities
Offshore based production facilities

Offshore Topside Facilities

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

INTRODUCTION
The mixture of oil, gas, water and undesirable
substances produced at wellhead has to be
separated and treated for export and disposal
The processing facilities has to cope with
changing produced volumes over field life time
Badly designed process can cause reduced
throughput and expensive plant/platform
modifications after start-up
Over-capacity or unnecessary process flexibility
can also be very costly
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

 Type of processing required is dependent upon

fluid composition at wellhead
But equipment employed is significantly
influenced by location i.e. on land or offshore; in
tropical or arctic environments
Processed fluids, gas must meet transport or
storage specifications and legal limit of emission
to environment for e.g. flare of gas and
produced water quality
Upgrading of facilities to reduce emissions is
much more costly once production
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

 Engineering design should be focused on

adding greatest value to the product at least
cost, while working under the framework of
health, safety and environmental policy

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

Production Facilities Layout

Once a process scheme is defined, the layout of
the equipment and plant is determined by
transportation considerations and by surface
environment
Important considerations for facilities on land
and off shore includes:
How to gather well fluids
How and where to treat produced fluid
How to evacuate or store products
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

Land based Production Facilities

If the land surface above a reservoir is relatively
flat, cheaper to drill and maintain a vertical well
In unpopulated areas common to find pattern of
wellheads at surface closely reflects pattern
which wells penetrate reservoir
In areas with housing and environmental and
topography concerns, wells are drilled in clusters
as close as possible to surface location of the
reservoir
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

1. Wellsites

Wellsite is to accommodate drilling operations

Designed to allow future operations and
maintenance
Provide containment on event of accidental
emission
Production from wellhead/wellhead manifold is
routed by pipeline to gathering station often without
treatment
If well produce naturally or with downhole pump,
there is only little equipment on site during normal
operations
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

2. Gathering stations
Can be a simple gather and pump station to
a complex processing centre
If several widely spaced fields are feed into
a single gathering and treatment centre, it is
common to perform primary separation of
gas, oil (and water)

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

 Simple Field station

Slug catcher, temporary storage tanks and
pumps to pump the separated fluids to main
gathering and treatment centre
Gas
Produced Fluids
Slug Catcher

Oil
Tank

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

 Complex gathering station

Facilities to separate produced fluids, stabilise
crude for storage, dehydrate and treat sales
gas, and treat waste products for disposal
Sales Gas Pipeline
NGL
Single wellhead or
wellhead manifold

Gathering Station
Tank storage
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

3. Evacuation and storage

Stabilised crude normally stored at tank farms
at distribution terminal
At distribution terminal, crude is stored prior to
further pipeline distribution or loading for
shipment by sea
Sales gas piped directly into national gas
distribution network (example)
NGL products stored locally in pressurised
tanks and then distributed by road or sea
shipment directly from gathering station
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

 For oil, it is stored in storage tanks

2 types of oil storage tanks, fixed roof tanks
and floating roof tanks
Storage tanks should always be closely
surrounded by bund walls to contain crude in
event of spillage incident and provide
protected access to fireman
Drainage systems inside bund wall should
only be open with monitoring to avoid
accidental release of hydrocarbon liquids
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

Oil tanks within bund walls

Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

Offshore based Production Facilities

Design and layout of offshore production
facilities are very different from land based
facilities because:
A platform has to be installed above sea level
before drilling can take place
Utilities such as light, water, power and living
quarters have to be installed to support
operations
Restrictions on weight and space requires
alternative storage methods
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

Offshore Platforms
Platforms are classified by their
mechanical construction
1.
2.
3.
4.

Jacket based platforms

Gravity based platforms
Tension leg platforms
Floating production platforms

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

1. Jacket Based Platforms

Substructure made from

steel
Most common type of
platform
Employed on wide range
of sea condition
Used in water depth up to
150 m
Jacket is made of large,
tubular, welded steel
pipes
Pinned to sea floor using
steel piles 1-2 m thick as
deep as 100 m
Jackets weigh up to
20,000 tonnes Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

 Construction of steel jacket platforms

Jacket fabricated onshore and then floated out
horizontally on barge and set upright on location
Once in position, jacket is pinned to sea floor with
steel piles
Prefabricated modules to place processing, drilling,
power and utilities equipment are installed by lift
barges on to top of jacket
The whole assembly is connected and tested
(commission)
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

2. Gravity Based Platforms

Substructure made from

concrete or steel
Rely on weight to secure them
to the seabed i.e. no need
piling
Have huge ballast tanks
surrounding hollow concrete
legs
Legs of platform can be used
as settling tanks/temporary
storage facilities
Weighs more than 200,000
tonnes

Hollow legs

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

Ballast tanks

3. Tension Leg Platforms

TLP is like a semi-submersible

rig tethered to seabed by
jointed legs kept in tension
Tension is maintained by
pulling floating platform down
into sea
Legs secured to anchor points
installed on seabed
Mainly used in deep water

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

4. Floating Production Platforms

Common for development of
small fields which cannot
support cost of a permanent
platform
Floaters as substructure
Tankers/ships/Semi-submersible
rigs converted to production
platforms such as Floating,
Production, Storage, Offloading
vessels (FPSO)s or FSOs
Can move from field to field as
reserves depleted
Deepwater also uses floating
structures such as SPAR
Source: E&P Core Programme INSTEP

Other types of platform

MOPU
Hybrid platform - jacket platform with
concrete foundation
Monoshaft tower with pile foundation
Guyed tower
Concrete articulated tower
Compliant platforms
SPAR
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

Offshore Evacuation Systems

Evacuated by pipeline or (oil ) tankers

1. Pipeline
Pipeline is most common especially when
dealing with large volumes of hydrocarbons
Failure to design a pipeline which can withstand
operating conditions over field life time can lead
to costly deferred oil production in cases of
pipeline leak or bottleneck due to wax
accumulation
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

 Long pipes are installed using lay barge

where welded connections are made one
at a time as pipe is lowered into sea
Pipelines buried as protection
Shorter pipelines can be constructed
onshore and then towed offshore

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

Towing a pipeline offshore

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

2. Offshore loading to tankers

Used in seabed areas where pipelines
not safe to install or projects where not
economic to use pipelines
Oil is evacuated from processing facility
directly to tanker
Loading carried out through Single
Buoy Mooring (SBM)
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

 Tanker is tied up and may rotate around

SBM
One or two tankers may be used
depending on storage capacity of
production platform
SBM has no storage facility but in some
areas (DW) has been developed with
storage facilities such as Spar type
storage terminals
Source: E&P Core Programme
INSTEP

Tanker Storage and Export

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

Single Buoy Mooring

Source: E&P Core Programme

INSTEP

Offshore Topside Facilities

 Offshore topside structure provides facilities to

perform the primary function of processing and
storage of hydrocarbon fluids received from
wellhead prior to evacuation to onshore
Besides that, offshore topside should be able to
provide other support such as power generation,
fire protection system, living accommodation for
workers

Primary Operation of Surface Facilities

Gas sales

GAS
Dehydration

Gas injection
Gas lift
Fuel

Separation
OIL

Flare
Oil treatment

Storage/export

Wells
WATER
disposal
Water treatment
Reservoir

Water injection

 Functions on offshore platforms:

Well control
Support for well workover equipment
Separation of oil, gas, water
Treatment of oil, gas, water
Support for pumps, compressors
Power generation
Accommodation

 Topside structure concepts:

Single integrated deck
Split deck in 2 four-legged units
Integrated deck with living quarter module
Modularised structure consists of series of
modules

Living
Quarters

Utilities

Compressor

Power
Generation

Water
treatment

Wellhead

Production

Major equipments/systems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Wellhead/X-mas tree
Piping/flowlines
Valves
Separator
Gas handling system
Water treatment
Pumps
Compressors
Injection systems
Power generator

11. Crane
12. Utility system

Instrument & service air

Starting air
Portable water
Fuel gas
Drainage
Fire water
Chemical injection

13. Fire protection system

14. Brucker