The Enron Teesside Gas Processing Plant

The Central Area Transmission System (CATS) pipeline with a design capacity of 1.4 BCFD of gas will be brought on stream in 1993. The initial production from the Everest and Lomond gas fields (see Figure 1) is to be utilised in an 1875 MW combined heat and power station at Teesside. Prior to delivery to the power station the gas is processed in an onshore gas plant for the removal of NGL to prevent liquid drop out at the inlet to the gas turbines and to recover valuable products. To maximise the availability and reliability of the NGL recovery plant a simple Joule Thomson expansion process was selected operating between the CATS inlet pressure and the power station supply pressure. The recovered stabilised NGL is separated into its constituent components in a two column fractionation train for separate sales. The initial turnkey facility which was designed and supplied by Costain is capable of processing 400 MMSCFD. Allowances have been made in the design for future expansion to increase this capacity as new fields in the central North Sea are brought on stream.