Executive Summary Report

Using Enalysis to Close the Bypass Valve and Reduce the Fuel Gas Usage

December 30, 2010
Calgary, Alberta

Initial Compressor Station Setup

Detechtion Technologies has been asked by an oil and gas producer to monitor and provide insight into the optimization of their assets. On one of their compressor stations (1050 HP – 3 Stage) Enalysis quickly identified the inefficiencies due to a depleting field. The lower gas production resulted in a compressor operating unproductively with a bypass valve opened at 45% and a horsepower usage of 358 HP/mmscfd.

Opportunity Overview

After the identification of the inefficiencies by Enalysis, a Detechtion engineer proposed to the client to change the setup of the reciprocating compressor by opening the pockets and lowering the running speed of the driver. Those changes would lead to closing the bypass valve and lowering horsepower usage without affecting the conditions of operation.

Results

After the changes, the client ran another Enalysis report to confirm that the compressor was operating within the safe operating limits provided by the manufacturer. The new Enalysis report confirmed that the new setup helped the client to close the bypass from 45% to 5%, which resulted in a lower horsepower usage (reduction of 49 HP/mmscfd).

In addition, the fuel gas consumption was drastically reduced and resulted in savings of about $1,900 per month assuming a gas price of $4 per mscf.

Enalysis and Detechtion Technologies helped an oil and gas producer to optimize and reduce the operating costs of an underutilized and field limited unit.