North Sea report/How Occidental group conserves associated gas in North Sea

Technical and economic studies to maximize energy recovery at Piper and Claymore fields in the U.K. North Sea, which sends oil by pipeline to the Flotta terminal indicated the feasibility of mixing the associated gas with that from Total's Frigg field for delivery to land after extracting the natural gas liquids to make the two gas streams compatible; and recovering additional energy by extracting ethane and supplying gas to the local utility for power generation for Orkney. Separation facilities at Piper consist of a Joule-Thomson gas-chilling and condensate-recovery system and an expansion-turbine recovery system to maximize condensate recovery. When the second LPG unit at Piper enters service, the Flotta plant's capacity will be increased to 12,000 bbl/day of propane and 5000 of ethane. By these means energy lost in flare gas has been reduced to 2% of total energy produced. Several alternative processing schemes that were under consideration are discussed.