Practical Engineering and Issues in Operating a Large Wellhead Plant - Paper Example

Purpose: To acquire more knowledge about practical engineering and important issues involved in operating a large Wellhead plant.

About the Site

ATI is a wellhead plant was constructed in 1964 in the USA. It has been in operation for several years. This plant has oil flow capacity of 4.0m3/hrs, the capacity of water flow was 1.0m3/hr and air flow of 5.0nm3/hr. Within this facility, there are 8 engineers, operators, technicians and mechanics. The operator first showed us the wreckage of the plant which has been replaced by the new one. It was abandoned outside the building approximately 40 yards from the plant house. The plant was very large than what we saw in the building. With a close examination, there were some signs of corrosion on most parts of the plant. Inside the building, we had the opportunity to see the upper and lower part of the plant.

We could see different types of equipment such as production wells, production manifold, and test manifold in the upper part. The lower part we saw multiphase flow meter, pig launcher and other parts of the wellhead which were introduced by FMC technology. Facility engineers also disassembled other parts of the plant to allow us to examine the interior part. We saw different valves such as SSS-111, lower master valve, and SSV-111. Engineers identified some valves as hydraulic while other as manually operated valves. The trip allowed us to examine sections of the production wellhead and the entire wellhead control system. Although we went very early we could not see all the operations and other services being offered to the plant to make it work efficiently. We only saw it being oiled and minor repairs being made on the plant. Generally, the plant was clean, painted, free from corrosion and dry.

Observations

During our trip, we observed a number of things. The building where this plant was located was very large approximately 100 feet by 35 feet. The plant itself was very large and huge making it occupy large space. The design for this plant was unique and complex because it has different components that function independently. These components include Hydraulic power unit, wellhead control unit and telemetry Interface module. All these units are housed in the main building while offices and support facilities were located in a separate building.

We also saw equipment used in making wellhead plant. In the plant house, we were shown equipment such as production wells, test manifold, pig launcher and even Christmas tree. Plant operator was there with us throughout the visiting session. He explained to us how the plant works. We were also shown parts of operating parameters that make the plant run. Within it, there was production wellhead which had various parts namely tubing head, casing head, and Christmas tree. At a glance, we also spotted various valves that control the flow of different fluids such as water and oil. The operator explained to us that it uses both hydraulic and manually operated valves such as manual wing valve and sub-surface valve SSSV-111.

From the visit, we also saw how wellhead controls system work. It has three components namely HPU, WCM, and TIM. HPU also had different parts namely high pressure and medium pressure oil circuits which are responsible for controlling the supply of header pressure. All these components require frequent oiling and greasing to remove corrosion and tear and wear.

Relevance

There are a number of issues associated with the operation of a wellhead plant and they are more relevant to my engineering study and future work. The most important is the size of the plant as it is associated with the production capacity of the machine. The larger the plant the higher the production capacity and therefore I need to take it seriously. It is therefore important to make correct decision because it has an effect on the life of different people. This is quite different from education sector where errors are marked as part of an exam but in this case, it is a costly action to the society at large. After college, we will have a responsibility of making critical decisions that have a meaningful consequence on the lives of the society.

The environment was very different from the College environment. The plant was located in an interior part of the country. Other facilities such as shops are located very far from the building and the nearest neighborhood is one mile away. Since this plant is operational, it, therefore, means that it has Government recognition and it can be allowed to operate for unseen future. This is a fascinating outlook in light of how engineering education is transforming to embrace new technologies.