GE upgrades gas/oil separation plant for Saudi Aramco

GE has replaced an aging compressor control system recently at Saudi Aramco's Haradh gas/oil separation plant in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province with advanced technology that automates the control process for three compressors and will improve performance and production. The new system was commissioned earlier this year and is operating successfully at the plant. This marks the first compressor control project with Saudi Aramco for GE's Measurement & Control business, building upon GE's past experience of providing turbine and generator controls for the company.

Haradh GOSP-1 is a critical plant for Saudi Aramco, and its three motor-driven compressors play a vital role by maintaining the compression of the gas after it is separated from the oil. The previous compressor control system used programmable logical controllers, which GE replaced with Mark VIe technology, along with GE's OptiComp compressor control algorithms and remote control capability from the plant's existing distributed control system.

The solution features GE's Mark Vle control platform with OptiComp control software and provides capabilities such as anti-surge, motor limit, pressure control, discharge pressure and pressure override control. GE also saved significant plant space by building a single platform to control all three compressors (two high-pressure compressors running in parallel and one low-pressure compressor running in series).

GE is said to have performed surge tests on all units to help ensure optimal compressor performance which helped enhance the performance of the low-pressure compressor and reduce degradation, ultimately expanded the operating envelope for that compressor. Ahmad Saleh Haradh, GOSP-1 Saudi Aramco project engineer said the updated control system “is now in full operation and is satisfying all of our performance expectations."