Title of Invention

"A METHOD OF MANAGING CRUDE OIL AND A SYSTEM THEREOF"

Abstract

A method of managing crude oil in preparation for separation of at least one component therefrom, said method comprising collecting crude oil from a plurality of well heads and combining the same to produce a blend for supply to separation means, wherein, before combining the crude oil flows, near infra red analysis is performed on the crude oil obtained from each well head and the results of the analyses are used to determine the analysis for at least one component in the blend of crude oils obtained.

Full Text

The present invention relates to a method of managing crude oil and a system thereof. This invention concerns methods of detennining properties of oil, e:;pecially cn;de oil. Many properties of crude oil are regu[~IKy determined on a very large scale wide, especially gas conlent and percentage of naphtha. ~as oil and feel oil, the latter being a key parameter in assessing the value of any oil, These are usually dorw ofT line b'9 inechan~cal techniques e.g. distillation. ~Th~ pn~sent invention provides a rnCthod of controlling a process fc'r se~.arating frcnn a crude oil at least one cc'niponant of said crude oil, which flows into a pipeline and then through a separator, wherein a sample cf the crude oil befhre entering th~ pipeline is ~rialysed for at least one component Ofl or at line tO gi've an analytj2al result before ;he crude oil. from which the sample was taken, reaches the. separator, and the operation of the separator is adjusted based on said result to control the separation of said comportent. Preferably the adjustment is to o~irnise the separation of said zoniponent from said crude oil, especially when the component comprises compou.-ids which ~re gases under the conditions of the separation, in pai4icular at iea~x one hydrocarbon of 1-5 carbons. The sample of crude oil may be anal yseci just before its ertn~ to the pipeline leading to the separator which pipehr1e may be 01-1000Km, especially 1-530Km or 00-400Km long before the separator or at a point intermediate in said line e.g. at ~n intermediate purnpin~ station (but still p:e7erably at least C'. 1Km or 1Km from pipeline priot to the separator may be underground upstream of the well head, i.e. with a significant vertical compcnent to its length. the separator may be at the well head. The tirn~ taken f~r the c:ude oil to pass froni the point of~nz~lysis to the separator may ic 0.2 hr to 10 deys, especially Oi-5 days or 1-10 hr~. The analysis tna~ be chronu ographic e ~ ga.~ phase or liquid phase chroniatographic, in whi~h a sample of the crude oil is injected periodically into a column on or at line. Pre1~rably the analysis is spectroscopic e g. L~V. visible (200-800nm infra r'3d(e.8. 260 ~nm - l00'IOnm) but especkily is near infra r~d e.g as described fUrther below. The spectroscopic analysis is in a standard cell kept at a fixed temperature through whit cell the appropri&e radiation passes, the p~ith length of the cell varying with the ~avelen~:h e.g from 0 1-1mm for IR, 0.1-~Crnm e g. 01-0.5 or 0.5-10mm for NLR, 1-Scm for visible and S-lOom for UV radiam:ion The outut of the analysis in the form of a percentage of an iigredient may be ]ayed by :clephone or radio to the cortroller of' the separator, where it can be in relation to the future operation of the separator. so that when the cru&e oil analysed reaches the scparator, the operating condition:; e.g. flow late, tern ~erature and/or prcssu~e may be such as to ootimise the separation e.g. optirnise thc rermoval of natural gas. Prefeably 1-owever the output f the a.ialysis as a percentage. of component o~ otherwise e.g absorption (or derivatives t1.ereof~ may be transmitted e1ec:~ically cr by eiectrzmiagretic radiation tc a computer (in rela' ion to the separator) which can then be programmed for feed ba~k control, e.g. kno Ning what the gas cc'ntent of the oil will be when that oil reaches the separator, the ~onditions can be changcd tc optimise throughput of gas. The anaivsis may be perfbrmed in real time or near real time. The pre~enL invemion also provides a met hol of determining or predicting a value of a property of a material which is a crude oil, or product of a process to which ~aiJ cnide oil is a fced or yield of sa~d process, which compi~e~ me~uring the .~bsorptiori of said oil at least one wavelength in the region 60C-2700nm e.g 600.2600 arx~ cnnvertin~ that aLsorption (~r derivative thereof) in:o a value of said properm or The ~xmverswn may be direct, or indirect by sati~tical correlation or b~ non correlation techniques The apphcation of near infia red speclroszopy to the crude ol has been fourmJ to enable the dat~t to b~ o .r~ained on line oi at line ~nd very luickly. resulting automated control techniques. The cru!z oil is usually primarily aliphatic in nature, but may contain up to 50% w!w liquid aromatic cornp.)unds, It is usually an oil field product from a well head, as whole weil product ic. the rnultrhasc mixture from the well bore con :aining oil aid water and/or zas which may be at 50-200 bar prensure, o:~ one such product att~: at least partial removat ot'water and/or gas rcady for seniing away down ~t pipeline from the ','.'e1 head and may be at up to 50 bar e.g. P-10 bar pressure. it may be on a production platfcrm, oi between platforms or from a prodi:ction ~1at.orrn to a collection or storage facility, on or offshore, or vessel, or at such a col1e~ ion or storage fucility or downstream thereof e ~ in a pipeliie do~~~nstrearr thucofe ~ at a furTher storage t'a~ility, such as in a gat.aerin~ station or r'4rnery 01 prior to a separatiun facility ~.g ~o separate ~as and.'or water md/or othtr compoments of the crude cil e.g in a dist llmtion to recover e 8 naphtl-a The cruce oil leaving the wel: head may contain dissolved gas (e g. in amounts ofup to 15% by weigh: ~as e.g .10% vdt) and/or water or water droplets (~.g 0 l.~SO% suc1~ as 0. -5% or 02-2%, e~pec.iall)' 1-40% such as 2-50% or 5-40% WI. w~tt'r), whik c~ and/or ~vater m~y be present :i~ a phy3ic~lly separa':e pliA~ especially when arriving at the well head. t ic Gas/Oil ratio (GOR) (expressed in StCu ft gas per ~arrel of 0i) ma', be l-lO%0 e g 2000-9000 (for ~il arriving at a well bead~ ard >1000 e u. 50-5 Its API gravity may be 10-60 e g 20-55 aid its Pour Point + 600C e.g. -20CC to +20CC Its boiling rai~e may be -3O~C to 5500C and final boilin8 point up to 580W. The ol may have be~.n dewater~d a'c/or desalted ber&e analysi~ and in parlicular when analysed may be substanti.illy IVee of any separate gas phas. It m~y be substaniafly free of dissolved ~as when analysed, but pref3rably contains 0 1.15% dissol'•ed gas The oil being sampled may Contain up to IC% wt suspcnded solics e.g. 1-5%, but is preferably sti~stantially free of~iw;pcnded solids. The oil s preferably substantially free cC suspended organic ~olids, sjch as inscluble bi1urr~?n and tar .sa~,ds md ~tsphaltenes, and suspended inorganic solids such as fori2atinn rock, The wx:elen~th(s~ at which the absorprion is measured is/are in the range 600-2700mrn Ruch as r5QC'-2600 nm, e.g. 600- 1 000, 1000-1500, 1503-2000 or 2003-2600 rbm ~rd especially 1000-2700, and may represent the firs': second, or third overtone region or the combination r~giori for CH bonds. The NIR analysis is pr~I~rably primirWy by tr~m~init1ance especially substantially coiripleiely by transmittance, wth opt:cal dc~s~tie~ of the oils prefcrably of'0.S-3 e.g. 08-2 5; reflectance analysis may be usecK The spectrophotorneter is usual'y ~ne capable of givi ig with the a:~alvte ir c1uestiin an absorption in the region 3700—5500cm" (18 8-2702 Tv~) of (>5-2 5. ~sp:~ciaEy -2 ~SCiJ)IiCr. units An ~xainple of such a SpC(:trOphotom~ter is ona with a I 2V I 8A quartz halogen lamp source (or one more powerful ~.g. 12V 20A). The oil may be a,alysed as a liquid sample in the cell of an NIR spectrometer or in a rcmote cell fitted with optical fibre guides leading to and from such a specirorneter, there b3ing one or more cell per spectrometer, e g with the optical fibres passirg through a multiplexer, so ene spec:rometer c2n analyse successively the :iquiis in a series of cells, The cell may hav~ internal wals and surf~ices of, and preferably be constructed of optical glass, qua:tz or silica ~r zirconium tluoride. depending on the wavelength of absorption, the :ptical fibres may aLso K chosen from the ';a ne materials. The cell path length decicases with incrcasini~ wavehmgth. When t 'rc oh is in the presenc:e of gas, eith~r disSo1v~d or senarire. so i~ is under ires~;ure~ the ccli it self is pr~~in-i~ed The cell m~y receive a separate liquid sample e.g. in a laboratory separate from the source of the sample or ar line next to the .;ource or may preferably be in line, e.g in a side line:. e. ~. in a tast" 1002, oft a main line coatainin~ the matc~riai to be fouled periodically and fou1in~t ~orId be :enicved er compensation i~ade for it WE CLAIM: 1. Apparatus for controlling a separation process, which comprises a pipeline for transport of crude oil containing at least one component comprising naptha, gas oil and fuel oil and dissolved gas, separation means as hereindescribed, for separating said component, an analyzer before at or on said pipeline for analysis of said crude oil for said component, a computer controlling said separation means and receiving signals from said analyzer for control of said separation means. 2. A method to control separation process, as claimed in claim 1, of at least one component of said crude oil containing naptha, gas oil and fuel oil and dissolved gas which flows into a pipeline and a separator, wherein the sample of the said crude oil before entering the pipeline is analysed as hereindescribed for at least one component to give and analytical result before the crude oil, reaches the separator, and wherein the operation of the separator is adjusted based on said result to control the separation of said component. 2. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sample of oil is taken and analysed at said pipeline at least 1Km from the separator. 3. A method as claimed in claims 1 to 2 wherein the sample is analysed by chromatography or spectroscopy, preferably near infra red spectroscopy. 4. A method as claimed in claims 1 to 3 including the step of determining a value of a property of the crude oil, said step comprises measuring the absorption of said oil at least one wavelength in the region 600-2700nm preferably 1000-2600nm, and converting that absorption into a value of said property or yield. 5". A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the crude oil is analysed by near infra red spectroscopy in real time the results are passed to the controller of a separator separating the dissolved gas from said oil in order to optimize operation of said separator. 6. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the crude oil contains water, and is analysed by near infra red spectroscopy for water.

Documents:

406-del-1998-abstract.pdf

406-del-1998-claims.pdf

406-DEL-1998-Correspondence-Others-(17-03-2011).pdf

406-del-1998-correspondence-others.pdf

406-del-1998-correspondence-po.pdf

406-del-1998-description (complete).pdf

406-del-1998-drawings.pdf

406-del-1998-form-1.pdf

406-del-1998-form-13.pdf

406-del-1998-form-19.pdf

406-del-1998-form-2.pdf

406-DEL-1998-Form-27-(17-03-2011).pdf

406-del-1998-form-3.pdf

406-del-1998-form-4.pdf

406-del-1998-form-6.pdf

406-DEL-1998-GPA-(17-03-2011).pdf

406-del-1998-gpa.pdf

406-del-1998-pct-409.pdf

406-del-1998-petition-137.pdf

406-del-1998-petition-138.pdf