In northern Kuwait, metering stations are helping to keep the oil flowing safely and reliably. Kuwait is a rich country – so rich, in fact, that at the start of the year the parliament appealed to the state to buy the private credit of insolvent citizens from the banks. Debtors were to have more time to pay back what they owed and interest was to be scrapped completely. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that such a suggestion came from Kuwait: the state owns about 10% of OPEC oil reserves and the oil industry accounts for 80% of national income.
Oil industry: the right metering pump for every chemical
The Kuwait Oil Company KSC extracts oil 24-hours a day. In the oilfield in the north of the country you will see metering stations (skids) and diaphragm metering pumps supplied by ProMinent. They meter inhibitors and oxygen binders to keep the pipelines clear and free of corrosion and defects. The added demulsifiers separate oil and water so that the water used to extract the oil can be sent to water treatment or purification plants with minimal oil residue.
The facility features a total of 63 pumps. “They were designed and built in Heidelberg, where they were accepted by the customer’s own engineers,” says Bernhard Baumgärtner, export manager at ProMinent. Engineering, documentation, pipework installation and configuration of the skids was carried out by ProMinent Korea.
Safety first
“The safety of our solutions takes top priority,” says Baumgärtner. “The recent oil disaster shows how important it is to have the right equipment.”
The Kuwaiti project had to satisfy very stringent quality standards. The pumps comply with the American Petroleum Institute’s standard API 675 and are equipped with explosion-proof motors to EEXe II T3. In addition to our own quality assurance measures, each individual pump underwent endurance testing. Not only the pressure, but also the material of the pumps was subject to close scrutiny. The Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH) curve was defined and then identified for each individual pump.
Even the paintwork was painstakingly checked to ensure that the exact layer thickness was observed. The materials are also resistant to aggressive media: the pump heads are made of SS316L stainless steel and the seals and diaphragms of the hermetically sealed pumps are made of PTFE – also known as Teflon®.
“This gives the pumps a long lifetime and ensures optimum protection of the environment,” says Baumgärtner.