Energy Recovery Studies For Flare Systems in Offshore Oil and Gas Facilities

Flaring is a controlled burning of hydrocarbon gases and it is a common operation in
oil and gas facilities. Flare system acts as the safety valve to avoid overpressure in
the production line. Flaring involves combustion of precious natural gases which
occurs at the flare header. This is indeed a waste of energy, and therefore, the
hydrocarbon gases should be recovered for better applications instead of
conventional flaring to the atmosphere.
Electricity generation from the combustible gases is the ultimate aim for this study.
Auxiliary electrical system such as lighting, water heating, and air conditioning can
be supplied through this gas powered electricity generation. Duyong gas platform,
operated by PETRONAS Carigali has been selected to be the reference field for this
study due to the high energy demand by the platform.
Flare gas data from the field has been used in the modeling process using HYSYS
simulation. Results obtained from HYSYS indicate that Duyong field has the
potential for flare gas recovery due to high power output generated from the system.
Cost analysis was carried out particularly on microturbines as the prime mover, and
it shows that high initial investment is needed to fund this project.