New operational guidelines designed to boost oil and gas production efficiency in the North Sea have been published by the offshore industry trade association.
Between 2004 and 2012 the North Sea faced the significant challenge of a sustained decline in levels of production efficiency, which fell from 80 per cent to 60 per cent.
Guidelines to Maximise Compression System Efficiency aims to address gas compression losses, which accounted for over 40 million boe (barrels of oil equivalent) in unplanned production losses in 2015.
The document was devised by the Production Efficiency Task Force, a cross-industry work group facilitated by Oil & Gas UK. The guidelines set out recommendations and good practice for improving compression system performance, covering areas such as:
- Compression system maintenance
- Integrity assurance
- Equipment and process condition monitoring, and,
- Training and competency
Matt Nicol, Chairman of the Production Efficiency Task Force (PETF) and Operations Director of North Sea Midstream Partners, said: “Since the establishment of the PETF in 2012, industry has improved for a fourth consecutive year and increased production efficiency from 60 percent to 73 percent in 2016.
“Gas systems are a key priority for our group, having been identified as being one of the largest sources of production loss.
“The Gas Compression Work Group, which produced this new guidance document, is made up of cross-industry expert volunteers who have worked together to share lessons learned and best practices.
“We have made great progress but still have more to do to achieve the PETF’s 80 percent production efficiency target. I encourage all operators to utilise this gas compression best practice guide.”
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