Abstract

Hudbay Oil (Malacca Strait) Ltd. tested two new technologies early this year. Both field trials were successful and Hudbay are therefore confident to use these techniques for the purpose of maximizing oil production.

The first test was of a hydrocyclone for cleaning-up produced water. This unit provides substantial savings in space, weight and maintenance cost, compared to the conventional water deoilerfacilities (gas flotation, plate interceptor). A field trial inthe Lalang Plant proved that the unit can treat oily produced water (up to 10,000 ppm oil content) without using chemical, to an effluent oil content of no more than 15 ppm and as low as 1 ppm. Hudbay is studying the feasibility of using hydrocyclones to upgrade its Lalang water treating plant from the current 75,000 bpd up to 125,000 bpd. This upgrading means that Hudbay can maximise fluid production from its offshore fields, where very high water-cut wells can be accomodated to achieve high ultimate oil recovery.

The second technology is the use of drag reducer chemical for increasing the crude oil export capacity. Anticipating the Kuraufield development and other oil discoveries in Padang Island, Hudbay needs to increase the export pipeline capacity between Lalang Plant and the shipping terminal. Injecting this chemical into the existing 2 × 8 in. diameter pipelines at 9 ppm dosage increased the export capability from the current 60,000 bpd to 65,000 bpd. Higher chemical dosage at 20 ppm reduced the pipeline pressure loss by 28 percent, with the potential of increasing pipeline capacity up to 72,000 bpd.