Teesside oil terminal

Last updated

Teesside oil terminal
CountryEngland, United Kingdom
CityMiddlesbrough
Coordinates 54°37'05"N 1°10'37"W
Refinery details
OperatorConocoPhillips
Owner(s)see text
Commissioned1975
Capacity67,000 barrels/day of NGL

The Teesside oil terminal is a major crude oil reception, processing, storage and export facility at Seal Sands, Middlesbrough. It receives and processes crude oil delivered by the subsea NORPIPE pipeline from the Norwegian Ekofisk field and the UK Fulmar and J-Block fields. The terminal includes facilities for exporting stabilised crude oil and liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) by tanker and pipeline.

Contents

History

The Ekofisk field was commissioned in 1970 with gas from the field exported to Emden Germany and oil loaded into tankers offshore. [1] In 1975 the 354-km Norpipe subsea pipeline was commissioned to transport oil from Ekofisk to Seal Sands Teesside UK. [2] The Teesside oil terminal (54°37'05"N 1°10'37"W) was designed to treat this oil to a specification suitable for atmospheric storage and tanker transportation.  It was also designed to process the associated natural gas liquids (NGL). A connection to Norpipe in the UK sector of the North Sea allowed UK fields to export oil to Teesside as they were commissioned. [3] These included the Fulmar installation commissioned in 1982, [4] and the Judy installation, commissioned in 1997. [5]

The 285-acre (115 ha) Teesside site was selected for the deep water moorings available. The oil terminal was officially opened on 21 October 1975. [2] Three days later the first tanker departed Teesside with a cargo of stabilised Ekofisk oil treated at the Teesside terminal. Initially the plant was unable to process natural gas liquids. The NGL plant was commissioned in March 1979. [2] [6] The terminal also provided feedstock to the nearby Shell UK Ltd Teessport Refinery.

The plant

The plant at the Teesside terminal includes the following: [7]

Operations

The specification of oil arriving at Teesside from the Norpipe pipeline is typically: [4]

Live crude import properties
ParameterValue
True Vapour Pressure230 kPa @ 38 °C
Base sediment and water0.2 % volume
Salt250 lb/Mbbl
H2S10 ppm weight
Total sulphur0.35 % wt
Nickel10 ppm weight
Vanadium10 ppm weight
Viscosity40 cP @ 3 °C
pH>5
Mercury0.15 ppb weight

The Teesside terminal was originally designed to process 1 million barrels/day of live crude oil. [2] It currently (2020) receives 800,000 barrels/day (127,186 m3/d) of oil and processes up to 67,000 barrels/day (10,652 m3/d) of NGL. [8]

The specification of the plant is to produce stabilised crude with a Reid vapour pressure of 3 to 8 psig (20.7 – 55 kPa). [2]

Stabilisation

There are six parallel stabilizer columns, the heat to drive the separation process is by reboilers at the base of each column. Each reboiler has a thermal capacity of 40 MW. [7] In the base of the stabilisers the temperature is sufficient to drive off lighter hydrocarbons as vapour. These rise through the column, stripping lights ends out of the down-coming oil. The light ends are withdrawn from the top of the stabilisers where they are compressed and routed to the NGL plant. Stabilized crude is drawn off the base of the stabilisers and is cooled and routed to storage tanks. There are 9 stabilised oil tanks each with a capacity 750,000 barrels (119,237 m3). [7]

NGL processing

The gases from the top section of the stabilisers are routed to the NGL plant. The plant also receives (since 1998) NGL recovered in the adjacent CATS gas terminal. [7] The plant is capable of processing 64,000 barrels/day (10,175 m3/d). [9] It comprises a series of fractionation vessels: de-methaniser, de-ethaniser, de-propaniser, de-butaniser and butane splitter. The vessels operate at successively lower pressures and higher temperatures. The vapour from the top of each vessel is respectively methane, ethane, propane, butane and iso-butane. [2] Propane is used as a refrigeration medium in the plant. There are three propane compressors each driven by a 3.1 MW gas turbine. [7] The flue gases from the gas turbines are routed to the combustion chambers of the steam boilers. There are three steam boilers of 104 MW capacity which provide steam for the stabiliser plant reboilers. [7] Methane is used as fuel gas on the plant. Ethane, propane and butane are liquefied and sent to insulated storage tanks prior to loading onto ships. [2]

Export

When required oil is pumped from the tanks to the quays and loaded aboard tankers. The terminal has four quays for crude oil export. [2] One of these quays can be used for NGL products. There are also four quays for liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) loading. The crude oil quays are each capable of handling tankers of up to 150,000 deadweight tonnes, the LPG quays can handle carriers of up to 60,000 m3. [2] Each of the jetties is provided with a vapour collection and recovery system. There are two vapour recovery units capable of processing 16,000 m3/h of hydrocarbon rich vapour, comprising vacuum pumps, guard beds and absorber columns. [10] In addition to sea transport stabilised crude can also exported by pipeline to the Greatham tank farm. [7]

Owners

The Teesside oil terminal was owned and operated by Phillips Petroleum Company from 1975 to 2002. [5]

Ownership transferred to ConocoPhillips when Phillips and Conoco Inc. merged in 2002.

By 2018 the terminal was still operated by ConocoPhillips. It was owned by: [11]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Official opening of the Teesside terminal". ekofisk. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Teesside oil terminal". conocophillips. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  3. ↑ "Judy/Joanne". chrysaor. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Fulmar" (PDF). reposol. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  5. 1 2 Department of Trade and Industry (1994). The Energy Report. London: HMSO. ISBN   0115153802.
  6. ↑ Kvendseth, Stig S (1988). Giant Discovery A history of Ekofisk through the first 20 years. ISBN   9788299177115.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Teesside crude oil stabilisation terminal" (PDF). gov.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  8. ↑ "ConocoPhillips oil terminal at Seal Sands" (PDF). charter-tech. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  9. ↑ "Teesside oil terminal". viewpoint. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  10. ↑ "Costain Teesside VOC". costain. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  11. ↑ "ConocoPhillips Acquires Additional 10.99 Percent Interest in Teesside Terminal". conocophillips. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
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