General Electric Company (GE) has upgraded the compressor control system at Saudi Aramco’s Haradh gas/oil separation plant (GOSP-1) to automate the control process for three compressors
The new system was commissioned earlier this year and is operating successfully at the plant in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, GE said.
Haradh GOSP-1 is a critical plant for Saudi Aramco and its three motor-driven compressors play a vital role by maintaining the compression of the gas after it is separated from the oil, the company explained.
The previous compressor control system used programmable logical controllers, which GE replaced with Mark VIe technology along with its OptiComp compressor control algorithms and remote control capability from the plant’s existing distributed control system (DCS).
Ahmad Saleh, Saudi Aramco’s GOSP-1 project engineer, said, “As the world leader in the production of petroleum-based energy, we, at Saudi Aramco, hold ourselves to the highest standards of excellence and have very specific requirements when it comes to compressor control and protection.”
Rami Qasem, president and CEO of Middle East, North Africa and Turkey at GE Oil & Gas said that Saudi Aramco is a key partner of GE and robust planning and the close partnership with the Saudi Aramco team has led to the smooth installation of a highly customised control package within a short timeframe.
GE also reportedly saved significant plant space by building a single platform to control all three compressors (two high pressure compressors running in parallel and one low pressure compressor running in series).
GE said it performed surge tests on all units to help ensure optimal compressor performance and the reduction of degradation.
