GASCO
| 200px | |
| Type | Joint Venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Gas |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Headquarters | Abu Dhabi, 22x20px United Arab Emirates |
| Key people |
His Excellency Yousef Omair Bin Yousef - Chairman of GASCO Board and ADNOC CEO Mohammed Sahoo Al Suwaidi- GM |
| Products | Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) |
| Website | http://www.gasco.ae/ |
Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd (GASCO) is a natural gas company of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE. It is a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which owns 68% of its shares. Shell owns 15%, Total S.A. 15%, and Partex 2%. The company is managed by Mohammed Sahoo Al Suwaidi.
Contents
History
GASCO was incorporated in 1978. In April 2001, ATHEER (Abu Dhabi Gas Company) a fully owned ADNOC company was integrated with GASCO.
Operations
The gas processing and natural gas liquid (NGL) extraction operations take place at four desert plants: Asab, Bab, Bu Hasa and Habshan. The processed products are then transferred to GASCO's Ruwais Fractionation Plant, to other plants (condensate and sulfur to TAKREER at Ruwais and raw ethane to Borouge), and natural gas to industrial customers through a network of pipelines with total length of over Template:2,300.
Gas plants
GASCO is engaged in the extraction of natural gas liquids from associated and natural gas. It operates associated gas plants at Asab, Bab, BuHasa, and Ruwais.
Habshan-Bab
The first gas processing plant at Habshan was built in 1983 at Bab oil and gas field to process sour gas from Thamama-C reservoir wells. The plant went through several expansion projects (debottlenecking in 1989, followed by OGD-I in 1996; OGD-II in 2001), thereby increasing its gas processing capacity rates to make it one of the largest gas processing plants in the world.
Habshan Plant currently has a total of eight gas processing trains and two gas injection trains with a feed gas capacity of 5 billion cubic feet per day (140×106 m3/d). The plant produces network gas, NGL, condensate and sulfur.
Part of the gas from the Habshan Plant is delivered to consumers through a gas distribution network covering the entire emirate and extending to Dubai. The uninterrupted supply of network gas is critical for the generation of electricity and for water desalination operations for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This is also essential for the supply of gas to many industries in Abu Dhabi, including the TAKREER (Abu Dhabi Refining Company) refineries, the Borouge petrochemical plant and for the FERTIL plant. The constant and reliable supply of gas is also crucial for Dubai (Jebel Ali Power Station). Another major gas utilization is its re-injection into the oil and condensate gas reservoirs for pressure maintenance purposes.
NGL (about 6,800 tons per day) is transferred to the GASCO Ruwais plant where it is fractionated into ethane (C2), propane (C3), butane (C4) and pentane plus (C5+) products, while condensate (about 142,000 barrels per day (22,600 m3/d)) is piped to the TAKREER refineries. About 4,800 tons per day of liquid sulfur is also produced, as a by-product of the processing of acid l gas. Liquid sulfur is trucked to Ruwais TAKREER facilities, where it is granulated and exported.
The Bab Plant is located across the road from ADCO Crude Degassing Plant, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Habshan plant. This single train NGL extraction plant was started up in 1981; it was de-bottlenecked to increase its capacity up to 150 million cubic feet per day (4.2×106 m3/d) in 1989. Due to the immediate proximity of the two plants, Habshan and Bab were grouped into one single entity in 2001 for operating the entire Habshan-Bab Gas Complex under a single management.
Unlike other GASCO NGL Extraction Plants at Asab and Bu Hasa, Bab has sour gas treating facilities using Di-Glycol Amine (DGA) solvent and acid gas recovery system. Acid gas is piped to neighboring Habshan Gas Plant for converting in to liquid sulfur. The produced NGL is piped to GASCO Ruwais fractionation plant, while the residual gas is compressed and injected into the network after sweetening.
The Asab and Bab Integrated Control System (ABICS) project executed by Cegelec in 2005 involved the installation of advanced computerized systems to replace the original pneumatic control systems currently in service at Asab and Bab.
Buhasa
Bu Hasa was the first GASCO NGL Extraction Plant to be commissioned in 1981. It processes associated gas from the neighboring Bu Hasa oil field in the central desert (50 Kilometers from Habshan – Bab Gas Complex and 175 KM from Abu Dhabi city).
After compression, the two parallel gas processing trains (total capacity of 540 MMSCFD) refrigerate the gas to a temperature as low as –87 °C to ensure a high propane recovery (above 99%).
The Bu Hasa NGL extraction plant has two trains with a total processing capacity of 540 MMSCFD. It receives associated gas from the neighbouring Bu Hasa oil field operated by ADCO. It extracts NGL from rich sour gas and sends lean gas to ADCO gas injection compressor and balance in to pipeline-network.
The original Habshan Gas Plant was built in 1983. After completion of several major development projects (OGD-I in 1996; OGD-II in 2001), the Habshan plant now includes eight gas processing trains with the capacity to process 3.5 BSCFD of non-associated and associated gas.
Early 2005, the Bu Hasa Integrated Control System project (HICS) was completed by Cegelec, through which the control room was converted from its existing pneumatic control system to modern, more efficient digital technology, without interruption of the production.
Ruwais
The Ruwais Fractionation Plant is an integral and major part of the Ruwais Industrial Complex and plays a very important part in the Abu Dhabi Onshore Hydrocarbon Chain. The Ruwais Plant receives its feedstock from GASCO’s NGL extraction plants, at Asab, Bu Hasa, Habshan and Bab, as well as from the neighbouring TAKREER (Abu Dhabi Refinery Company) refinery. The plant, which can process 23,370 tonnes per day ( 7.8 million tonnes per year) of NGL , has two parallel fractionation trains, storage facilities and a loading jetty to export propane, butane and Paraffinic Naphtha.
The NGL feed is fractionated into four products: ethane (C2), propane (C3), butane (C4) and Paraffinic Naphtha. Ethane is exported to the neighbouring petrochemical plant of Borouge for the production of ethylene. The other three marketable products are stored at Ruwais before transfer via the Gasco Ruwais jetty to gas carriers or via the refinery jetty to pentane tankers and shipped to markets worldwide.
In January 2004, Ruwais achieved the milestone of 3,000 ships with more than 90 million tonnes of marketable product loaded for export from since the Ruwais plant started up in 1981.
Asab
The Asab NGL and AGP Plants are located next to one of the richest oil fields in the country, 190 kilometres (120 mi) south of the city of Abu Dhabi. The Asab NGL extraction plant has been in operation since its start-up in 1981.
It receives the associated gas (capacity 306 million cubic feet per day (8.7×106 m3/d), Single Train) coming from the adjacent oil producing company. After being compressed, the feed gas is cooled down to -80 °C in order to ensure a high NGL recovery.
The Asab Gas Plant (AGP) started in 2001 to process condensate rich gas from Thammama F/G reservoirs. It encompasses two parallel processing trains, with a total capacity of 825 MMSCFD. Condensate is extracted from the feed-gas at a rate of about 80,000 barrels per day (13,000 m3/d); after stabilization, and then transferred to TAKREER Ruwais oil refinery at a distance of 215 km. Residual gas is re-injected into the reservoir for pressure maintenance purposes.
See also
References
External links
