Helps determine the optimum suction pressure at a field compression station (FCS) to maximise production while still respecting the hydraulic, discharge, compressor and power constraints of the compressors and related infrastructure.
Screw compressors have high price tags, as do large onshore gas developments. Finding ways to reduce capital investments by millions of dollars or improving the economic valuation of a development is a worthy endeavour.
By making use of wellhead pressure and adjusting suction pressure at a Field Compression Station (FCS), operators may either reduce capital expenditure on compression or increase gas production earlier in well life.
Changing suction pressure impacts the operating temperature and power required to operate the compressors. These physical constraints must be considered when proposing suction pressures.
PCG Solutions worked closely with the engineering function to design and build an optimiser that could take as inputs for an FCS: the well connection schedule, type curves for the wells, compressor capacity on a suction pressure/discharge pressure matrix and power requirements on a suction pressure/discharge pressure matrix.
The optimiser then determines the optimum suction pressure for each month for the life of the wells that maximises the FCS throughput without breaching the constraints.
Key features
- Optimises throughput by determining optimum suction pressure for each month
- Ensures no suction pressure is proposed that would breach a facility constraint
- Impact of changing suction pressure in current month impacts the reservoir, this is considered when determining suction pressure in following months (total gas in reservoir is not altered)
- Optimisation algorithm uses a binary search algorithm to increase calculation speed
- Solution could be configured to any FCS facility provided number of compressors and well connection schedule is known
Benefits
- Allows operators to reduce capital investment in compression
- Allows operators to model the impact of using wellhead pressure to increase production beyond specified capacity