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89

March

2017

HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING

T

o say it has not been smooth sailing for the

oil and gas industry over the last few years,

would be an understatement. Operators are

looking to save time and money to reduce

their exposure to low oil prices, all the while cutting

jobs and suffering the consequences of a loss of

expertise in their workforces.

In an industry where one unplanned shutdown can

cost millions of dollars, time has always been of the

essence. With margins threatened, companies across the

sector seek innovative technologies to answer to these

ever increasing pressures, to cut the cost of operations

and maintain steady production and efficient

downstream activities.

Focusing on chemical testing and monitoring, an area

which undoubtedly has suffered from the loss of

experienced personnel and subsequent increases to

individual workload, there has been an added pressure to

simplify methods of testing whilst still obtaining accurate

results. Such testing is critical to ensure operators can

identify levels of chemicals in process streams, allowing

quarantining of contaminated product and optimisation

of process equipment, such as monoethylene glycol

(MEG) regeneration plants. The ability to respond to real

time information allows the operator to make important

decisions to reflect positively on the value of the

product and thus the usefulness of these results has an

expiration date. Looking beyond cost, innovation must be