The science behind production

摘要

Colin Thurston, Thermo Fisher Scientific, UK, covers the essential steps, processes and sophisticated systems behind successful gas production. Qatar's North Field is the world's largest natural gas field, containing approximately 15% of the world's total gas. Tapping that tremendous energy potential is Pearl GTL, the largest gas to liquids facility in the world. The facility is fed by subsea pipelines through which flows sour gas from offshore platforms 60 km off the Qatar coast. The project, engineered by Shell and Qatar Petroleum, has the capacity to extract 1.6 billion ft~3/d of gas from the North Field, which can be processed into 120 000 bpd of condensate and natural gas liquids and 140 000 bpd of gas to liquids (GTL) products. Extraction, production and distribution of natural gas involves tens of thousands of discrete steps and processes that must be executed with remarkable precision. There is a science to gas production, especially at the scale of Pearl GTL, so it should be no surprise that we find state-of-the-art laboratories at the centre of operations.