BASF’s subsidiary Wintershall has announced that it will power its Libyan plant using associated gases
The German oil and gas firm, which produces up to 90,000 barrels of oil per day in Libya, revealed it had stopped using diesel to power its gas and oil separation plant (GOSP) at Nakhla.
The plant is now being run on a seven megawatt gas turbine with a synchronous generator, supplied by drive specialist WEG, which uses associated gas from the oil extraction process, thereby reducing costs and CO2 emissions and making Nakhla completely self-sufficient.
“High operational reliability and availability were our main concerns when selecting the generator,” explained Wintershall project manager Rainer Bleich. “In part, that’s because electricity generation is vital for the continuous operation of our GOSP in Nakhla – each day of downtime can cost us millions of euros.”
The custom-built generator took around a year to build, and features a top-mounted air/air heat exchanger and external fans and a special air filter, designed to prevent sand accumulation.
Wintershall has been operating in Libya since 1958, and currently operates eight onshore oil fields in the C 96 and C 97 concessions.
