Tracerco offer world leading TRACERCO Diagnostics™ technologies to ensure your oil and gas separation system runs at maximum efficiency.

The specialist services are used on-stream to monitor performance within the separation system giving an accurate diagnosis of a

number of operational problems and ensuring optimal usage of effect chemicals.

A TRACERCO Diagnostics™ Separator study allows many production parameters to be measured. Examples include:

• Detection of mist or droplet carry over into the gas phase causing downstream mechanical problems.

• Measurement of the presence of emulsion or fluid channelling resulting in inadequate oil dehydration.

• Tests to establish the most appropriate type and quantity of anti-foaming or de-emulsifier chemical added to the system.

• Detection of solids build up leading to a reduced settle time.

In high throughput production systems even a small uncertainty in monitoring any one of the above operational aspects will result in

reduced productivity.

Please call us today to discuss how we can assist in your production operations. We can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days

a week to provide timely, effective solutions to your problems.

TRACERCO Diagnostics™ in Oil and Gas Separation

Internals integrity Carry over measurement

Oil, water and gas residence times andvessel distribution flow

Emulsion band detec-tion

Solids build-up assessment

JM_1400 Separator Studies Datasheet 22/7/09 12:29 Page 1

Billingham, UKTel +44 (0) 1642 375500

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XM0001/0/E

Tracerco is a trade name of Tracerco Limited.

40-42 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8EE

Company No.4496566

Tracerco Limited is a subsidiary of Johnson Matthey PLC.

TRACERCO and TRACERCO Diagnostics are trademarks

of the Johnson Matthey Group of companies.

Teamwork, and some high tech detective work have combined

to enable a BP platform to increase its oil output substantially.

A central production troubleshooting team were asked to help

solve the problem of an under performing separator. With oil

production off plateau, there was increased water production

but the separators were unable to dehydrate the oil to the

required standard for export through the pipeline.

The bottleneck resulted in the platform missing production

targets. Chemicals were used to try to improve oil-water

separation but with limited success. The production

troubleshooting team analysed the chemicals to look for clues

but concluded that the answer to the problem lay elsewhere.

One of the BP engineers had previously used a TRACERCO

Diagnostics™ Separator study. He called us to carry out

scanning as well as tracer injections to establish interface and

flow properties through the system. “I had a suspicion about

what the problem might be” said the engineer, “but realized

these tests would enable us to fully understand what was

actually happening within the separator”. The results showed

that the residence time of the liquids in the separator was just

60 seconds instead of the usual three to four minutes.

“Effectively the vessel was short circuiting”, said the engineer.

The problem was traced back to a decision to remove baffle

plates in the separator to cope with the presence of asphaltenes

in the oil. A recommendation to re-insert a baffle in the lower

part of the separator was carried out.

After modifications, output was raised significantly, not only

to the target level but some 20% above. “Overall, the whole

exercise, from the first request to the carrying out of the

modifications was very rapid” said the engineer who praised

Tracerco for the speed and safe manner with which it carried

out the work. “A lot of credit for the fact that we were able to

get the job done so quickly should go to the guys from Tracerco.

They began preparation work even before the deal was signed.”

Teamwork uncorks bottleneck at BP facility

1650 30 60 90 120 150Time (minutes)

Radi

atio

n in

tens

ity

200

150

100

50

0

inlet oil water

15 45 75 105 135

10.5 21.5 2.50Distance below top of separator (m)

Radi

atio

n in

tens

ity (t

hous

ands

)

100

50

20

10

5

2

1

0.5

0.2

0.1

no antifoam4ppm antifoam 1ppm antifoam

Oil residence time measurement

Oil-gas interface scan

www.tracerco.com tracerco�tracerco.com

JM_1400 Separator Studies Datasheet 22/7/09 12:29 Page 2