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| NEWS |
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| Abu Dhabi Decision on Partner for Bab Sour Gas Field Development is Imminent. |
Abu Dhabi is close to identifying a partner to help produce natural gas at the Middle Eastern emirate’s Bab field and is on schedule to renegotiate contracts for its largest onshore oil fields, officials said.
ADNOC has recommended one of two international companies that were in the running to develop gas at Bab, Mohammed Sahoo Al Suwaidi, Head of the company’s Gas Directorate, said yesterday during the inauguration of Shams 1. The company is awaiting government approvals for the proposal, and a decision is imminent, he said.
ADNOC will select partners for its largest onshore oil areas in 2014 as planned, Director General Abdulla Nasser Al- Suwaidi said, dismissing reports that contract talks would be extended by one year. “We are still progressing as scheduled,” Al-Suwaidi said. Al-Suwaidi and Sahoo Al Suwaidi spoke to reporters at the inauguration of the solar power plant about 120 kilometers from the city of Abu Dhabi.
Five foreign partners as well as other producers may participate in bidding for 1.4 million barrel-a-day onshore oil rights as current contracts expire. Abu Dhabi holds more than 90 percent of the crude in one of the few Middle Eastern countries that allow foreign companies to explore for and produce oil within its borders.
ADNOC is poised to boost gas production from offshore fields to 1 billion standard cubic feet “this summer,” from about 200 million standard cubic feet now, Sahoo Al Suwaidi also stated. ADNOC is completing a project that will pipe gas captured offshore to be processed on land |
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| France's President to visit Abu Dhabi to boost Total’s bid for UAE gas deal. |
French President Francois Hollande will lead a charm offensive in the United Arab Emirates this week to try and help oil major Total win a $10 billion deal to operate the strategically important Bab sour gas field.
Aside from its value, the Bab ultra-sour gas deal could also give Total a competitive edge in talks for the 2014 renewal of the UAE's largest onshore oil concession, ADCO, on which the Bab field stands.
ADCO, which has been in place since 1939, is up for renewal in 2014 and includes the Asab, Bab, Bu Hasa, Sahil and Shah fields. Abu Dhabi's national oil company (ADNOC) has a 60 percent stake, Total , BP , Shell and ExxonMobil each have 9.5 percent.
ADNOC has launched a tender to award in 2014 a 30-year licence to develop the multi-billion, ultra-sour Bab gas field, which is included in the 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) concession.
The Bab project's ultra-sour gas contains around 30 percent deadly hydrogen sulphide, making it more dangerous and complex to operate than conventional gas reserves.
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| Petronas’ K5 study furthers sour gas ambitions in Malaysia |
| Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petronas is hoping a study of the prospective K5 gas block offshore Sarawak with Total will provide answers over how best to exploit hydrocarbon fields with high concentrations of about 20 % carbon dioxide. |
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| Barzan Gas Project More Than 50 Pct Complete, Qatar |
A delegation of senior management from Qatar Petroleum recently visited the construction site of Barzan Gas Project in Ras Laffan. Overall progress of this key project, critical to meeting Qatar’s future energy needs, has recently surpassed 50% as the gas processing facilities are now taking shape.
The QP delegation included Mohamed Al Marri, Manager, Oil and Gas Surface Development, Tamim Attar, Manager, Project Evaluation and Planning, Ahmad Al-Amoodi, Assistant Manager, Common Facilities, and Abdulrahman Al Braik, Assistant Manager, Transmission and District Engineering.
Nafez A Bseiso, Venture Group Manager, RasGas Company Limited, and management representatives from the Venture Group accompanied the delegation.
The delegation, which toured the entire site stretching over three square kilometres, witnessed the remarkable achievements that have been made 22 months into the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) phase of the project.
Bseiso said the Barzan Gas Project both in Qatar and the offshore facilities being built in Ulsan, South Korea, are currently on plan both in terms of cost and schedule to achieve start-up of Train 1 in 2014.
“When the two new gas processing trains are in operation in 2014 and 2015 respectively, they will combine with other RasGas facilities (LNG and pipeline sales gas) to produce a staggering total production capacity of around 11 billion standard cubic feet per day (the equivalent of almost two million barrels of oil), making RasGas one of the largest single gas processors in the world,” said Bseiso.
“A construction workforce of over 19,000 comprising of more than 50 nationalities has contributed in achieving world class safety performance and industry leading results, including a total recordable incident rate of 0.05 and lost time incident rate of 0.01 during the project,” he said.
He said quality plays a critical role in all aspects of the execution of the Barzan Gas project, and it is important to ensure that every step, from engineering design, procurement, construction, completion and handover, is done to the highest international standards.
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Etihad Rail receives its sulphur transport wagons |
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Etihad Rail, the developer and operator of the UAE’s national railway network, announced today that the first shipment of wagons, to be used in Stage One of the rail project linking Shah and Habshan to Ruwais in the Western Region arrived at Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed port recently.
Commenting on the arrival of the cargo, H.E. Dr. Nasser Saif Al-Mansoori, CEO of Etihad Rail said, “the |
| timely arrival of the wagons is yet another indicator of the rapid progress being made on this strategic national project. Construction activity for the first stage of the rail project, which is being developed in partnership with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), is far along and we are on track to see the first trains run from Habshan to Ruwais within a year using these wagons. Etihad Rail’s wagons were carefully manufactured and designed based on several studies and integrated research efforts conducted in collaboration with Etihad Rail’s different suppliers, leading us to adopt some of the most advanced rail technologies available in the world. The rail project will change the face of transportation in the UAE, playing a significant role in building a sustainable economy by promoting growth in various business sectors, providing jobs for the local workforce, and contributing to environmental preservation, since one fully loaded train produces 70-80% less CO2 emissions than that of the trucks required to transport the same tonnage.”
Etihad Rail contracted China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR) last year to supply 240 covered wagons for the transport of granulated sulphur in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi. Etihad Rail has also contracted United States-based Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), one of the world’s largest builders of diesel-electric locomotives, to design and manufacture seven heavy haul freight locomotives.
The wagons were designed with the highest available safety standards to accommodate the core purpose of Stage One, the transport of granulated sulphur. The wagons’ top-hatch covers for loading maintain the purity of the sulphur at 99.9%. Furthermore, train transport allows for a capacity of up to 22,000 tonnes of sulphur per day. It would take 360 trucks to transport the equivalent tonnage.
Aspects of this transport area are covered in Workshop 5 of SOGAT 2013 – www.sogat.org |
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| Dolphin Energy ‘s Experiences and Solutions in sorting out Sulphur Shutdowns |
Stripping sulphur from so-called ‘sour’ natural gas is one of the major challenges in the GCC’s upstream industry. Dolphin Energy’s Ras Laffan gas processing plant comprises two process streams, both of which include sulphur recovery units (SRUs) which aim for a recovery rate of 99%. The combined plant is designed to produce 1,170 tons/day of sulphur as a by-product . Each SRU is a conventional two-stage Claus catalyst bed design with a Scot Tail Gas Treatment Unit.
During May and June 2011, there were two unplanned shutdowns of the SRUs, which affected the overall plant throughput at that time. Before |
| May 2011, these units were operating normally for over 3 years without any significant operating issues.The first unplanned shutdown of SRU-2 lasted from 11 May to 4 June 2011. This occurred due to tube failures on the first stage condenser heat exchanger with subsequent damage during the cool down procedure to the associated first Claus Reactor re-heater heat exchanger.Erosion was found on the bottom three tube rows of the first and second sulphur condensers. These tubes which account for approximately 3% of the total tubes were plugged.During the shutdown, all acid gas was processed by SRU-1, requiring a reduction in gas throughput to 1,850 MMSCFD to avoid flaring acid gas.The second unplanned shutdown was of SRU-1 unit from 15 June until 28 June 2011. This shutdown was again due to a condenser tube failure but this time it was on the second sulphur condenser.Inspection revealed erosion signs similar to those seen at SRU-2. The bottom four rows of these exchangers, representing approximately 5% of the total tubes, were plugged.A failure analysis of the SR-1 and SR-2 condenser tube leaks was performed by both the licensor and an independent third party.
The analyses agreed that the root cause of the tube erosion in SRU-1 and SRU-2 condensers was due to improper flow distribution at the entry nozzles to the exchangers.Both the parties reviewed the information related to the design, operation and failures of SRU-1 and SRU-2. Damage in the form of metal loss, including holing through of tubes, as well as some metal loss to the inlet tube sheet at the top of the tube bundle were observable after about three years of operation.The root cause of the failure was found to be improper design of the system returning HP steam condensate from the Claus Reactor Re-heaters to the subject condensers.The HP steam condensate outlet from the re-heater connects to a steam trap and then to the condenser inlet. This hot condensate flashes, both in the pipe, and at the condenser inlet nozzle. The flow of large amounts of steam into the underside of the bundle causes high local velocities and turbulence. The damage to the tubes and tube sheet was caused by ‘Flow Induced Corrosion’ (FIC). |
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Copyright © SOGAT 2012. All Rights Reserved. |
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