All equipment from the wellhead through to crude export pipeline or tanker can be engineered and designed for both onshore and offshore installations. EPD capabilities include experience of the following key unit operations:

• Separation: Stage flash separation in pressure vessels for oil, gas and water separation
• Heating and Cooling: Addition or removal of heat that may be included for stabilising the crude oil
• Stabilisation: A distillation column may be used downstream of the first two stages if four or five flash stages are needed
• Dehydration and Desalting: Electrostatic are coalescers used to reduce the crude BS&W and salt levels to acceptable limits for downstream operations
• Chemical Injection: Crude oil and water separation may be enhanced by the addition of chemicals such as demulsifying and anti-foaming agents

EPD can offer a full de-bottlenecking service where there is a requirement to increase the throughput of a crude oil or gas treatment process or to improve its performance.

A full review will investigate individual units such as separators, heat exchangers and heaters using in-house and proprietary software (i.e. CFD packages such as Fluent), and compare their actual and predicted performance against a full fluid analysis. Operational issues such as foaming and waxing can be identified and possible mitigations proposed.