Schlumberger held on October 22 the Schlumberger OneSurface Technology Day to introduce its new OneSurface product line. The event, which took place at the Renaissance Hotel in Cairo, was divided into two main parts: the first to share the overall OneSurface technology portfolio, services, and products; and the second to discuss specific technologies that could support some of the pillars of the Ministry of Petroleum’s Modernization Program.
The newly-created OneSurface product line is the evolution of Process Solutions & Systems (PSS), which previously consisted of Cameron Process Systems and Early Production Facilities (EPF), according to the company. “The OneSurface portfolio enables a safe deployment of different technologies to enable treating existing facilities, and upgrading existing facilities and production,” Karim Badawi, Managing Director of Egypt and East Mediterranean at Schlumberger, told Egypt Oil & Gas.
Attendees included Eng. Abed Ezz El Regal, CEO of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC); Eng. Nabil Salah, EGPC Vice Chairman for Production; Geo. Osama Farouk, EGPC Vice Chairman for Exploration; Major General Abdelbaset El Sayeh Abdelbaset, Chairman of the Egyptian National Petroleum for Exploration and Development Company (ENPEDCO); Khaled Hemdan, Chairman of GUPCO; Eng. Mahmoud Abdel Hamid, Chairman and Managing Director of Esh El Mallaha Petroleum (ESHPETCO); Chemist Nabil Fahmy Abdel Khalek, Chairman of El Nasr Petroleum Company; Dr. Mohamed Abdel Aziz Metwally, Chairman and CEO of the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR); Mark Konecki, Region Operations Director at Apache; and operations and production engineers from national oil companies (NOCs).
Early Production facilities
Production is a vital phase in oil and gas projects, as it is the only stage that generates revenue and validates reservoir deliverability and potential estimates. Tarek Medhat, OneSurface Business Development Manager at Schlumberger, discussed Schlumberger OneSurface’s capacity for early production facilities.
“In Schlumberger, we engage at the early stage of field development with our clients, leveraging diverse knowledge in upstream services to provide our customers with optimum facility design in a modular approach to allow scaling and upgrading the facility with the field life-cycle,” he said.
Schlumberger employs the project life-cycle governance approach in execution and delivery of EPF. With that approach, the company has delivered several projects worldwide in different environments and configurations, either turnkey or engineering procurement, and construction (EPC) mode of engagement.
During the presentation, Medhat went through diverse EPF configurations with case studies and project history delivered by Schlumberger.
The company delivered fully automated facilities to allow the safe and continuous monitoring and controlling of plant operations through a central control room (CCR) and motor control center (MCC).
“EPF project deployment faces challenges, especially fast track ones. The company leverages their global network of supply chains, including vendors, packagers, and worldwide distribution facilities to overcome logistical challenges in project execution,” Medhat said.
Medhat added that “information is the bottom line of the challenges.” He clarified the importance of information’s quantity and quality in order not to have overestimated or underestimated reservoir expectations. He also explained that the main consequence of the lack of timely and accurate information is the waste of investors’ capital by building an over-designed or under-designed EPF.
OneSurface Gas Processing
As a reservoir-integrated production system, OneSurface can provide its clients with several types of technology related to gas, oil, water, processed water, sea water, and solids, according to Malcolm Corsie, Schlumberger’s Sales Manager for OneSurface in the Middle East.
OneSurface delivers projects related to sour gas treatment, the treatment of which depends on the nature of the gas. First, Corsie described amine refining units as a system for removing hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from gas, pointing out that producers cannot sell gas that contains H2S due to its poisonous, corrosive and dangerous nature to the environment.
Amine units work through a solvent-based process, which removes H2S and CO2 from the gas. The units then clean up the solvent before it is put back into the system and the process is repeated, Corsie explained.
OneSurface also provides membrane units as a way of removing CO2 from gas. The Cynara CO2 membrane systems are efficient, compact, flexible, reliable, environmentally-friendly, and easy to operate. However, “one of the main disadvantages of a system like that is, it does not remove sulfur. It just removes H2S and CO2,” Corsie commented.
Meanwhile, Thiopaq uses naturally-occurring and self-regulating bacteria to convert H2S into manageable solid elemental sulfur that can be used in a variety of agricultural applications or disposed of in landfill. “It is a bacterial process that eats the H2S,” Corsie said. Furthermore, Thiopaq is operationally and environmentally-friendly as it is a naturally-occurring aerobic process.
Thiopaq is reliable and simple to use, it reduces operating costs, and it complies with stringent HSE regulations and the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) program.
For a cost-effective solution, OneSurface also offers Sulfatreat and Select XLP, which are low-cost iron oxides to remove H2S.
Treating gas does not just include removing CO2 and H2S; it also has to address water. OneSurface provides glycol dehydration units which remove water, liquids and heavier hydrocarbons from the gas.
The gas treatment facilities offered by OneSurface also included mol sieve units – which are better used in large and offshore applications and have lower capital costs compared to glycol dehydration systems – and condensate stabilization technology, which reduces stock tank emissions and makes the product suitable for transportation.
Oil and Water Treatment
Treating oil and water is as important as treating gas for the OneSurface team. “Water is getting scarce not only in Egypt, but also in the US, Canada and other places” said Rob Stoffele, lead produced water product engineer at Schlumberger. Water treatment is therefore a vital process for protecting the country’s water resources.
Johnny Cezar Martinez, senior product engineer, discussed multiphase separation technology, in which the operator can separate water from oil and gas. Schlumberger uses both 2-phase and 3-phase separators, which use gravity to separate the liquids from the gas.
OneSurface also offers different types of dehydration and desalting vessels, including AC dehydrators/desalters, dual polarity (DP) dehydrators/desalters, electro-dynamic desalters (EDD), and dual frequency (DF) dehydrators/desalters. This technology removes water droplets from crude using electrostatic coalescence (dehydration), before washing the oil to remove water soluble impurities (desalting).
During his presentation, Stoffele also discussed methods of treating produced water. According to him, produced water can be discharged, but this has to meet local and federal discharge requirements. Another way to deal with produced water is via reinjection into disposal wells.
The OneSurface oilfield water treatment services include frac water treatment, which ensures consistent frac-grade water quality and reduces requirements for transported water. The services also include pond flipping with its expedited oil removal and biological control; saltwater disposal services with the hydrocarbon recovery; and improved lifespan of the disposal well, in addition to pipeline and storage protection.
Stoffele talked about seawater in the oil and gas industry. Seawater has several applications including biofouling control, particle filtration, ionic filtration, deoxygenation, and chemical injection. Hence, OneSurface offers seawater treatment methods, which include solids removal, bio-growth control, chemical treatment, dissolved oxygen removal, and modification of seawater.
After Market Support
OneSurface has several aftermarket global networks. “That allows [OneSurface] to react very quickly, as it has foot printing in Europe, the Middle East, the US, and across Malaysia. The services are completely tailored to whatever [the clients’] requirements”, Chris Ridley-Smith, Senior Project Manager, explained in his presentation during the event. He explained that Schlumberger uses its own equipment which they designed, built, engineered, and operate.
OneSurface offers spare parts for their equipment. The client does not have to buy new equipment. “[OneSurface] can supply entails for existing vessels to bring the existing technology up to speed and bring the latest establishments, and the latest developments in technology they offer,” he said.
Smith said that the company has begun to open support facilities in Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, adding that he sees no reason that prevents the team from opening a facility in Egypt.
Schlumberger also offers auditing services through its OneSurface team, in which the team dispatches a specialist to assist the company. “What the company tries to do is to choose people who have experience in full types of equipment, full operating facilities; somebody who can come to site, review full operations – upstream and downstream – and then submit recommendations to help support and develop the operations,” Smith pointed out. Hence, the service was created to help clients understand the kind of help they need.
Schlumberger’s OneSurface product line offers many facilities from the production to the market. Its teams assist clients step-by-step to support and provide them with any needed help. Moreover, they provide them with spare parts and perform any maintenance required.
On top of that, Schlumberger confirmed during the event that OneSurface is environmentally safe, and the company pays great attention to the country’s regulations while implementing any project.
“I think it is great opportunity to hear what Schlumberger can do. This event shows me what Schlumberger’s capabilities are,” Mark Konecki, Region Operations Director at Apache Egypt, said following the event.
Schlumberger has been investing in Egypt for 80 years, during which it has been developing its technologies and products to enhance the Egyptian oil and gas industry. On the sidelines of the event, Badawy told us he expects the event to bring “awareness to the oil and gas industry in Egypt about the capabilities of Schlumberger in the service facilities framework, which will be key to deliver the full technology portfolio.”
