UEG Naimat LPG Project Safely Commission
On October 17th 2017 at 23.50, UEG’s Naimat LPG surface facility was announced to commission safely for LPG output. Thanks to the close cooperation of Karachi and Beijing team with the contractor and their efficient management, the project was completed and cmmission on schedule, setting another milestone of subsurface facility construction of UEG project in Pakistan.
The Naimat LPG project was kicked off in July 2016, aiming to upgrade the existing LPG plant to increase its capacity through additional equipment. The existing LPG plant has a capacity of 60 MMscfd and is operated based upon propane refrigeration process with a rate of availability of 60%. After the upgrading program, the plant will be operated by using new turbo-expander technology with 100 MMscfd daily capacity and rate of availability at 95%.
The project was undertaken by PetroChina Southwest Institute on an EPC contract with its work scope including engineering design, equipment procurement and transportation and mechanical and civil works construction etc. The work load is heavy, where the existing 38 equipment items weighing 200t need to be removed and new equipment items weighing 1500t needs to be transported to the jobsite in Pakistan from China and USA. Besides, the project also involved the layout of pipelines with their welding junctions measuring 37,000 ft and the erection of steel structures weighing 160t.
During its execution, the project has to meet with serious challenges in terms of work duration, quality, cost and safety.
The existing plant was built in 1985 and relocated to its present location in 2010, featuring outmoded equipment and facilities, backward process, incomplete drawings, unclear indication of some parameters and difficulties in investigation and design. Notwithstanding the above, UEP organized its activities meticulously and completed the front-end engineering design by utilizing core resources, paving a sure way for post-project design and construction.
Despite the tight project schedule, both teams in Beijing and Karachi cooperated closely and the project teams have completed the following activities with high quality and high efficiency: Investigation within two weeks; review of the preliminary P&ID within one month and subsequent promotion of HAZOP; contract award of LLE items within one month and detailed 3D design, supply, skid arrangement, ex-works inspection and earlier shipment for 16 skids across the plant in four months.
The project also had to meet great challenges in terms of production safety and management. The existing equipment is still in operation while the upgrade program was launched to update the existing plant; hence it is of crucial importance to ensure production and personal safety of 700 individuals at the site and that of production. The project team took stringent production safety measures during the construction stage and conducted a due diligence for the whole process to control various HSE steps strictly. Due to the meticulous organization and coordination of the project team, no safety accidents occurred during execution of the project.
At the equipment commissioning stage, the project team was confronted with difficulties in their efforts to have commissioning of the existing equipment mate with that of the new ones. In spite of the above, the project team worked closely with the contractor’s team to tackle the key technical issues. They worked day and night and finally the project successfully commission and produce LPG.
The project construction completion and safe commission will increase the capacity of the Naimat plant by a great margin and the availability of equipment which provides a sound foundation for improving the entire economic benefit of the oil & gas project in Pakistan.