INTRODUCTION
A production company in the Eagle Ford Shale Play was facing increasing repair costs due to well depletion and lack of qualified labor in the area.
PROBLEM
The producer had skids that were prefabricated by many different manufacturers on this location. A lot of the equipment had been in place for over 5 years, and the wells had begun depleting over this time.
They used a dual dump valve set-up on each vessel, meaning there were 2 High Pressure Control Valves on their water dump lines and 2 on their oil dump lines for each production vessel. This allowed them to re-route production to the extra valve to perform valve maintenance without shutting down.
These 3-inch control valves on their oil and water dump lines were sized for initial production volumes. However, because of the depleting production, they were considering downsizing to 1” valves. This would bring additional costs and downtime, as they would have to downsize their piping to fit the smaller valves.
SOLUTION
After reviewing the customer’s application and conditions, Kimray Field Services technicians recommended a valve called an MBO, which is a 3” High Pressure Control Valve with a 2” topworks for these dump lines.
While it is a 3” valve, this version features trim that can be swapped out and replaced to get the orifice down to 1”. This allowed the producer to keep their existing piping while matching the reduced flow needs due to the lower
production volume of their wells.
RESULTS
The valves were installed on their piping with limited down time. The customer was pleased with the solution, and the Kimray Field Services team in South Texas has now installed 30 of these valves.
They also keep them in stock to replace as the producers’ wells continue to experience reduced volumes and leave the existing products oversized.