Cutting-Edge Solutions for Sour Gas Treatment- A Retrospective Study by Kuwait Oil Company

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) owns and operates several Oil & Gas fields and Pipeline networks in Kuwait and is responsible for exploration, development, production and operation of Kuwait's Hydrocarbon assets. The oil fields in the western part of the state predominantly produces high sour gas and normally the compressed sour gas is transported to downstream refineries for treatment, wherein the Acid Gas Removal Plants extract the sulfur contents in the gas received by treating it with regenerative Amine based treating processes for removing acidic impurities such as H2S, CO2 and organic Sulphur compounds. The country has been long battling with the limitations in downstream sector such as limited handling capacity, unplanned shutdowns, and delay in their expansion projects. This created huge bottlenecks for the upstream unit of KOC which consequently resulted in operational disturbances and gas flaring beyond the company's global flaring target of < 1%. To overcome these challenges, a comprehensive study was carried out for sour gas handling in the State of Kuwait and installation of Gas Sweetening Facility (NGSF) within KOC was considered imperative. However, the process of project delivery was a great challenge due to emerging operational approaches and conflicts with expansion projects in refinery. Thus, breakthrough solutions were set out deploying appropriate core technologies. This paper discusses the challenges at length and the innovative solutions implemented which were intended to optimize the production and utilization of gas in support of energy requirements for the State.