IMPROVEMENT OF SEPARATION EFFICIENCY OF THREE-PHASE GRAVITY SEPARATOR AT OML-124 IZOMBE FLOW STATION, IMO STATE

Abstract

The enhancement of the separation of oil, gas and water was carried out with a three-phase separator operating at 24 psi at 20 min. interval by injecting demulsifier and varying the size of water outlet pipes from the existing 3-inch to 4 and 6-inch diameters. The results showed that the crude oil content in the separated oil phase without demulsifier were 67.4, 78.5 and 88 % respectively in the 3, 4 and 6-inch water outlet pipe diameters respectively. Similarly, by varying the demulsifier flow rates from 0.005 to 0.013 gallon/min. (corresponding to demulsifier concentrations from 6.84 to 17.79 ppmv), the crude oil contents in the separated oil phase were increased from 74.2 to 85.7 %, 90.7 to 98.1 % and 99.65 to 99.9 % in the 3, 4 and 6-inch water outlet pipe diameters respectively. It can be concluded that the increase in the water outlet pipes reduced the rate of formation of basic sediment and water, which constituted the oil-in-water emulsion while the presence of demulsifier further reduced the emulsion.