Pipeline Flushing and Filtering

CASE STUDY

Pipeline Flushing and Filtering Campaign

Location

Gulf of Mexico

Published on

Summer 2017

Challenge

CFAST Environmental Services was called on to pump, pig, and treat the returning fluid from 20 pipelines as part of a large pipeline campaign. These 20 pipelines varied in size, length, and volumes, making the need for our application to be particularly versatile. Also, the customer had limited deck space and requested a low amount of media consumption. The goal was to significantly reduce the levels of total organic carbon, lead, oil and grease, and total suspended solids to be in compliance with the permitting regulations of the Department of Environmental Quality of Louisiana.

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Action

CFAST ES worked internally to provide all pre-job documentation such as P&ID’s, deck layout drawings, area classification drawings, safety drawings, and electrical drawings all according to 14C compliance and BSEE approval.

CFAST ES tied directly into the customer’s LP separator with high pressure piping and through a choke into their CFAST system.

Since this was a long-term project the CFAST system was hard piped in and completely automated for ease of operation. Our CIP (clean in place) method was used to maintain the centrifugal separation equipment’s efficiency.

CFAST ES also provided two highly qualified personnel to operate and monitor the system around the clock, should anything go wrong, they were there to fix it.

Equipment Rig UP

CFAST P&ID

Results

Treating and discharging the water overboard on site saved the customer the costs and liability that would have been associated with disposing of the water by other means such as trucking and disposal fees.

Reduced nonproductive time by treating and discharging on site which resulted in speedier overall operating time

Ensured the discharged water was in compliance with all NPDES standards, limiting the long-term liability and association with the waste, avoiding fines and negative public opinion.

In using the CORE Unit we eliminated the cost and inconvenience of exhausted media, saving both money and deck space.

Daily testing reports by our operators gave us and the customer real time data on the operation. This data included flow rates, oil and grease concentrations, IR tests, sheen tests, total fluid overboard, and total hydrocarbons collected.

Over the life of the project we filtered an estimated 45,000bbls with no wasted media byproducts.