Compressor Dry Gas Seal Failure Mitigation for Reliable Gas Injection System at Banyu Urip Field

Abstract

The gas injection system at Banyu Urip oil production facility in Indonesia consists of two compressor trains. Each train comprises one LP and one HP centrifugal compressor with a gas dehydration system in between. In 2020, one dehydration system experienced fouling and subsequently increased the gas moisture content. The condition initiated corrosion product formation flowing to both the LP and HP compressors of the particular train and subsequently damaged the compressor Dry Gas Seal (DGS) system. The paper will be focusing on the investigation of two dry gas seal failure cases due to contaminated process gas by corrosion product. The corrosion product blocked the seal gas strainer of HP compressor and caused reverse flow across the labyrinths seal, exposing the dry gas seal to dirty gas. Additionally, as the process gas coming into the LP compressor has not been dehydrated, field inspections revealed the second failure case that the process gas condensation caused accumulation of the fine debris at the orifice plate of the seal gas leakage line. Various improvements and dry gas seal system modifications were carried out to cope with the dry gas seal failures, such as the installation of duplex seal gas strainer to allow strainer replacement without shutting down the compressor. Furthermore, the Electrical Heat Tracing (EHT) installation at the seal orifice plate also successfully prevented the process gas condensation. Upon implementation of the strategies, the Banyu Urip facility successfully managed to improve the reliability of the gas injection system despite fouling gas dehydration unit.