Unit 10

Gathering centres
Section A
Reading comprehension
Read the following passage
After the crude has been brought to the surface, the next step is to process into
the form in which, it will be sent on to the refinery. Through the flow lines,
production from the various wellheads in the field is directed to the gathering
centre. Off-shore, for reasons of space and cost, the gathering centre is the
production platform itself. At the gathering centre, the oil is treated to bring it
up to pipeline and refinery specification. Water and dissolved salts can
seriously corrode chokes, valves and pipe walls, and must therefore be
removed from the crude before it is transported. Dehydration and desalination
can be accomplished by electrical precipitation, heating, and washing with
fresh water.
Reservoir crude also has to be treated to separate associated gas. Separation
of the gas may be a single- stage or a multi-stage operation, depending on the
gas/oil ratio. In single-stage separation, only one oil-gas separator is used.
Separators can be vertical, inclined, or horizontal.
Natural gas may also require treatment at the gathering centre, particularly if it
contains water vapour. When a high pressure gas is expanded to a lower
temperature, considerable cooling takes place. If the gas contains water
vapour, this cooling can cause the formation of hydrates, and these may plug
chokes, valves and pipelines. The gas is dehydrated in a large steel vessel
known as a serubber, in which the water is removed by the absorbing action
of glycol. Natural gas frequently contains considerable amounts of the
corrosive and highly toxic acid gas (hydrogen sulphide), and treatment must be
available for this as well as for water vapour.
Trunk lines connect the gathering centre to the refinery or tanker terminal.
Many kilometres of large-diameter pipeline (26 or 32 OD) may be required.
Problems inside the lines must be prevented, or quickly corrected when they
occur.
The devices which test, log, clean and unblock oil pipelines are known as pigs.
Each type of pig is usually referred to by a special name. One type of pig, for
example, is known as a rabbit. In product pipelines, pigs can be used to
separate two or more different oil products which are being sent at the same
time through a single line.

Special words and expressions

Refinery, the buildings and equipment for making crude oil into pure products.
Crude is refined into gasoline, diesel oil, etc.
Specifications. Before a crude can be piped from the gathering centre, it must
meet certain requirements concerning water content, salt content, etc. These
are the specifications.
Corrode, wear away or eat away by chemical action.
Dehydration, process of removing water from.
Desalination, process of removing salts from.
Precipitation, separation of a substance from solution or suspension by falling
out.
Gas/oil ratio, also written GOR, this is the proportion of dissolved gas to
crude. The ratio 10:1 = ten parts of one to one part of another.
Inclined, at an angle from the vertical or horizontal. Do you remember the
word inclinometer, from Unit 8?
Vapour. A vapour is a gas which can be liquefied (turned into a liquid) by
pressure alone. If a gas is above a certain temperature, it cannot be liquefied
by pressure alone. The temperature above which a gas cannot be liquefied by
pressure alone is referred to as that gass critical temperature.
Hydrates. To oilmen, hydrates are snow like compounds of methane and
water. Chemically speaking, however, a hydrate is any compound formed by
the union of water with some other substance.
May plug, may block up.
Vessel, an object designed to contain something, Barrels, separators, storage
tanks, are all vessels.
Absorbing. A sponge absorbs water.
Toxic poisonous. The international warning for toxic substances and other
dangers to life is a skull and crossbones.
Comprehension
a) What is the reason for the similarity between the words inclined and
inclinometer?
b) Look at the drawings of pipeline pigs and say which one would be most
suitable for scraping operations. Give your reasons.

c)
d)
e)
f)

What powers a pig through a pipe?

How does glycol dehydrate gas?
Why is it necessary to desalt crude?
The critical temperature of a gas is -4 C (minus four degrees Centigrade).
At -6 C, what must be done to the gas vapour in order to liquefy it?
g) Suppose you were responsible for several vessels full of toxic chemicals.
How could you warn others to treat them carefully and safely?
h) Express these ratios as fractions: 3:4, 1:7, 7:28, and 5:14.
i) Whats the simplest way of separating associated gas?
Choose from the following to complete the paragraph below: content, corrosion,
processes, gathering centre, produced, formation, having, specifications,
separation, relation, minimum, treated.
I cached the surface, the fluids must be to separate the oil, gas, and
water. The processes at the are similar in many ways to those which are
used in the refinery. In to water in crude oil, pipeline and refinery are
particularly concerned with the salt son that can be kept to a.It is
therefore frequently necessary to use expensive and complicated to
remove water.