Saudi Aramco's Haradh gas plant, dedicated earlier this year as part of the country's Master Gas System, reached full design inlet capacity of 1.6 bcfd by late summer, more than double its initial 450 MMcfd rate, according to a company publication last month.
The plant processes nonassociated gas from four fields and can deliver up to 1.5 bcfd of sales gas to the Master Gas System along with 170,000 b/d of condensate that are transported to Abqaiq via a 230-km, 18 and 24-in. pipeline.
With more than 7 million b/d capacity, Abqaiq is the main processing center for Arabian Extra Light and Arabian Light crude oils and a distribution hub for some products.
In addition, say company figures, the plant can process, degas, and ship out via trucks some 90 tonnes/day of sulfur more than 300 km to the Berri gas plant from where the sulfur is pumped to the nearby Jubail industrial complex to a sulfur pelletizing plant for export.
Trains; fields
Of Haradh's four gas processing trains, two handle sweet gas and two sour gas from the Khuff formation. Sweet gas comes from the Haradh, Ghazal, Wudayhi, Waqr, and Tinat gas fields. Khuff gas comes from the Haradh field.
Besides the four trains that perform gas dehydration, dewpoint control, and sales-gas compression, other facilities include two gas sweetening and sulfur recovery trains, two condensate stabilizers, and two sour-water strippers, according to company data.
The Haradh plant is fed by 87 wells linked by three manifolds at Haradh, Waqr, and Tinat.
The Haradh manifold is 12 km from the gas plant and collects sweet and sour feed gas. The Waqr manifold is 50 km from the plant and gathers sweet gas. The Tinat manifold lies 44 km from the plant and also gathers sweet gas.
Five transmission lines totaling 130 km, along with associated headers, trunk lines, and flow lines move gas to the plant.
Downstream of the Haradh plant, an 18 and 24-in., 230-km pipeline carries condensate to Abqaiq. Expansion of the Master Gas grid includes 394 km in five gas pipelines of 48-56 in.
Future development
Haradh sits at the southern tip of the Ghawar field, which Saudi Aramco calls the world's largest onshore oil field and produces Arab Light crude oil. Development plans for the Haradh area, the company has announced, envision three increments of 330,000 b/d.
The first of these increments, Haradh GOSP-1, went on stream in March 1996 (GOSP = gas-oil separation plant). The second increment, Haradh GOSP-2, was commissioned in April 2003. The third increment, Haradh GOSP-3, is in design and will be online by mid-2006.
Crude oil is gathered from 224 oil-producing wells, the majority of which will be completed horizontally, says the company.
Formation-pressure support to the field is from a peripheral seawater injection program. Seawater is treated at the Qurrayah seawater treatment plant and moved 250 km to the Haradh injection facilities for injecting into 103 peripheral water-injection wells.
In last month's announcement of the Haradh gas plant's reaching its design capacity, Saudi Aramco said that the plant "constitutes a significant addition to the Master Gas System in Saudi Arabia, increasing the system's overall capacity by 25%."