Liquefaction of Unprocessed Well-Stream

Commercial exploitation of remote gas is considered as a major challenge by the oil and gas industry. A breakthrough approach based on the Liquefied Unprocessed Well-Stream concept may result in an alternative option for offshore gas liquefaction. The pr oject proposal is based on a concept to liquefy well streams of gas and/or gas-condensate, directly with a minimum of pre-processing. To develop the concept further, there is a need to understand the behaviour of the well fluids when they are expanded and reach low pressures and temperatures. The LUWS-concept represents a new technology, and therefore limited information is available about the thermo-physics of the process, or the behaviour of the fluid mixtures during the expansion, storage and transport phases. Such knowledge is crucial to understand the process and select appropriate equipment. Therefore extensive basic R&D is required to address these key issues. To compensate for the current lack of available knowledge and to acquire the necessary co mpetence, the project benefits from the broad experience within traditional LNG technology of the participants and includes two PhD positions from 2007. IFE is the project applicant and will ensure the management of the project. Statoil is the industria l partner and provides competence, human resources and its technology to the project. Extension of the industrial participant group is considered from 2007. NTNU's Department of Energy and Process Engineering and SINTEF Petroleum Research have confirmed t heir interest to join the project. The Technical University of Denmark is suggested as a partner. This group of collaborating organisations has the potential to achieve the objectives of the project that is planned to last from mid 2006 to mid 2010 and ha s a total budget of 25.1 MNOK.