OTC 23970

Design Challenges of the World's Largest Slug Catcher

Lowell C. Thronson, P.E., TECorp International, PLLC; and Angus Holden, BSc. LLB., Jord International Pty Ltd

Copyright 2013, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference held in Houston, Texas, USA, 69 May 2013.
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Abstract
The Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Husky Energy Inc. (Husky) have developed Phase I of the
Liwan 3-1 Deepwater Gas Field in the South China Sea in which natural gas and condensate flow onshore to the CNOOC
Zhuhai Gaolan Terminal via a 30-inch subsea, two-phase pipeline. Forecasts of the gas and condensate flow performed by
multi-phase simulation tools predict steady-state liquid slugs arriving at the terminal during normal operations as well as
extreme liquid slugs during pigging operations. This is largely due to a combination of the forecasted condensate production
and the pipelines final onshore elevation 190 meters (623 ft.) higher than the offshore elevation. These factors, as well as
minor changes in elevation along the pipelines route, will cause large volumes of liquids to build up in the pipeline. As
these liquids move onshore through the pipeline, slugs are created. To receive large amounts of liquid in short periods of
time, a 7,000 cubic meter (44,000 barrel) capacity was specified.
Although not uncommon to have large, multi-pipe slug catchers at onshore receiving stations, the sheer volume of
the predicted slugs during pipeline pigging presented unique challenges to the design and construction of this slug catcher,
which is currently deemed to be the largest in the world. A total of 28 finger sections (storage tubes) of 56 inches in outside
diameter (OD) each with a length of over 175 meters (575 ft.) were required to store the large volume of arriving condensate.
The 28 parallel fingers, coupled with their 175 meter length, required a plot area of over 15,000 square meters (161,400 sq
ft.), equivalent to several soccer fields, making this slug catcher the largest single piece of equipment on the entire project.
Since all of the gas and condensate feeding the onshore development and gas processing plant must first pass
through the slug catcher without interruption, the criticality of design with regard to flow assurance was paramount to the
overall project. The engineering and design of the process and separation capacity in the header systems also had to consider
elevated future flow rates and pigging operations. The engineering design was subsequently verified through the use of
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
Several other issues were targeted for special design consideration including large thermal expansions, earthquake
loading, slug forces, modularization, construction tolerances and flow assurance.
This paper describes the special circumstances leading to various design decisions which were employed to
successfully complete the project.
Introduction
There are many different slug catcher designs of various geometries functioning well around the world today. Multiple
concepts were reviewed before deciding on the final design of the Liwan slug catcher. Key issues to be considered for the
slug catcher were that it:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Have a minimum overall footprint

Be capable of being split into two isolatable sections for maintenance, with each section capable of 50% flow
Have header components that could be fabricated in manageable (modularization) sections in a shop environment
Meet the stringent separation requirements and flow assurance

Slug catchers have two primary functions: They must ensure the efficient separation of the gas and liquid, and provide
storage capacity for the separated liquids. This project dictated a stringent separation efficiency with a maximum particle size
at the gas outlet of 70 microns. The specifications also required a storage capacity of 7000 cubic meters of condensate
(44,000 barrels.) Complicating the overall design was a dramatic change in the process conditions after three months into
the project and after the basic design was virtually complete. Although the overall gas flow rate and storage capacity did not
change, the steady-state liquid flow rate increased by over 300%, which required a complete re-design of the inlet header