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Cost of hot tapping

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HTlofty

HTlofty

Petroleum
Aug 7, 2010
7
Have to send an idea of how much it would cost to tap into an existing well head to take off flare gas for use in electrical generation onsite. Any ideas of the cost of such operations and what is involved - not my usual area.HTlofty
 
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That's a very relative question. What is the percentage of phases in the two phase flow? What is flow rate? How remote are you located?
 
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First, many thanks for the reply - Yes! I figured that this would be the nature of a reply and I apologise for the lack of info in the first thread. OK - my experience in the oil sector is confined to upstream so I am by NO means an expert in this area - frankly the questions don't mean a great deal to me. Two phase flow? Again, sorry but this does not convey much to me - we have been commissioned to enter a bid for outside work; the demand was for tapping into an existing well-head, bringing very localised flare gas to a skid mounted gen set, using the flare gas in direct combustion and generating electrical power (again) to feed very local micro-grid distribution. My problem is that I am trying to "gestimate" the various costs involved with the production of power, one of them is obviously getting the flare gas from source to the gen set. The gen set will be max 100 meters from the well head. Does this info help?
 
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GREAT! What ARE the alternatives?
 
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Do you not have any bind flanges, blowdown valves, a spool piece somewhere you can remove and quickly replace? A vent somewhere you can double up on? No piping drawings?

"The top of the organisation doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying." Tony Hayward X-CEO BP
"Being GREEN isn't easy." Kermit[frog]
 
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BI,
Once you put a tubing hanger on a wellhead and hang a few tons of pipe off it, it can get tough to "just" stick in a spool piece. If you are trying to get your fuel gas off a casing hanger that only has a tee (instead of a cross, I saw one like this last month), then there might be hydraulic reasons not to tap into a vent on the piping or hot tap into the piping (the dumb well I saw had a casing wing valve, a threaded companion flange, a 4 inch long 2-inch nipple, a ball valve, another short nipple, into the tee on the downcommer from the tubing--no options for casing gas other than a hot tap into the tee on the wellhead).

Wellheads are pretty specific kit. The OP is not going to get any useful advice without a drawing.

David
 
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David, BigInch, I am very grateful for the advice which is technically oriented - however this is genuinely not in my area of competence. The question posed to me was how much does it cost (as a generic operation) to tap into a flare gas supply in order to send that flare gas to an engine which will be used for generating power (a reciprocating engine fuelled by the flare gas and connected to an alternator which will eventually supply localised power way off the grid. Sorry if my question was misleading but the technical side will be handled by experts such as yourselves - my remit is to provide a "gestimate" on cost. Physical piping aside, (assumed to be no more than fifty metres or so) do you have any previous experience in costing such a land-based operation?
 
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zdas, I assume there's more than a wellhead on the surface. The gas goes somewhere, right.

W/o knowing more, I'd figure somewhere from 25,000 to $100,000

"The top of the organisation doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying." Tony Hayward X-CEO BP
"Being GREEN isn't easy." Kermit[frog]
 
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present flare is simply flared off to atmosphere (little restriction on environment (one reason why I am so personally interested in doing something to capture and make use of flared gas. Well head ( s) presently situated in what amounts to a swamp - piping to collection point (again in the swamp) and from there the crude is sent to a central pumping station. Old and pretty rough! However - I had myself "gestimated " more or less the same as yourself - as a "just in case measure" I suggested up to $US 200,000 - reckon that should cover most eventualities. Again - many, many thanks for your patience and help. HTlofty
 
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Mobilization costs can make up a lot of the differences in estimates. If you've got 200K to spend on it, sounds like you might need all of it, if its as remote as you say. Of course some majors might just spend all of that on engineering and risk analysis alone. Then again, if its in the Niger Delta, or the Mississippi Delta, you might get one of the locals to do it for a % of the take.

"The top of the organisation doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying." Tony Hayward X-CEO BP
"Being GREEN isn't easy." Kermit[frog]
 
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agreed - Niger Delta is the place - I might revise the estimate! Regards the % - unfortunately not my decision but a good idea! We have discretion on the budget in this area - maybe we should look at a greater amount? If we are talking about sub-contracting, then there are plenty of skilled people operating there - some are waiting to start, some just finished (getting a crew in that are not already in country is, as you know a nightmare!)Again - thanks for the advice BigInch.
 
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zdas, In Texas, you couldn't tap a wellhead for power anyway. It would have to be after the well meter, so there would more than likely be some bits of pipe with a vacent blind, or a spool with flanges on each end where you could do a quick shutin/replace.

"The top of the organisation doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying." Tony Hayward X-CEO BP
"Being GREEN isn't easy." Kermit[frog]
 
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agreed - we assume that with a functioning (as in "presently producing") well-head, there are areas (portions) of the pipework either before or after the venting to atmosphere where an access of some type can be made (the metering of the flow may not be so important as regards how much gas is being used but I guess that it is important to see what the input to the added pipework for the flow of gas to the engine would be?
 
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In TX, its to pay the royalty to the mineral rights owner, the State and to let the Railroad Commission know how much gas you took from the reservoir, and for reservoir management, tax records, etc.

"The top of the organisation doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying." Tony Hayward X-CEO BP
"Being GREEN isn't easy." Kermit[frog]
 
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