THE APPLICATION OF GAS PLANT SIMULATION BY COMPUTER TECHNIQUES TO THE GIPPSLAND PLANT START-UP

Abstract

Start-up of the first portion of the Gippsland Basin Development project was begun in March, 1969, when gas was delivered into Victorian metropolitan markets. The gas and crude producing system which spans a pipeline distance of some 200 miles will ultimately include five offshore producing platforms and two onshore plant complexes capable of producing and processing 400 MMCFD of natural gas, 300,000 BPD of crude oil, fractionating 45,000 BPD of LPG, and terminalling both crude and LPG including marine tanker operations. The major portion of the plant complexes and three of the platforms have been successfully placed in operation to date.

Detailed analysis and planning of all aspects resulted in safely placing these facilities in operation at the earliest possible time with maximum safety and minimum lost production. However, inter-relation of multi-product commitments for natural gas, ethane, LPG and stabilized crude oil compounded the burden of the segmented system start-up, necessitating prompt and frequently overlapping start-up of more than one segment at a time. Furthermore, initial conditions were necessarily quite different from design.

Throughput of crude was in the order of 100,000 BPD with significantly different properties from the mix ultimately expected. The gas absorption plant was initially operated with a throughput of approx. 25 MMSCFD, some 8 percent of design. To provide process set points and optimize start-up procedures, computer simulation models of each of the plants were made, and the results integrated into a comprehensive plant start-up plan.

This presentation will discuss the simulation techniques used, together with the development and application of the start-up plan.