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$3 Million; • •./••«-y /j* ,r •.+ • ,lt; ‘-J* , • uw ■ Xlt;V; 1 y*«: Vlt;/AV#«, -7,V . ^ V ' \lt;• g V ~iv ^ V• 7 -i . Vi'• • V ■'. T r t •»'r / •• N5- * - ■ :•lt;■ v: ■* -7;• ' * ' ■ •' . ...rv '..i- 'r-:x :'K / , ’ .•*}..v' lt;'•.•* ‘ -vAV/w:W'.* A,- '• V. ■_• *’:*V 1 -.--p •; • V*:i -yI'imiwi'* VSD'S-EYE view of the Worsley scTUbbingdp^ gh format of the completed project. Now about fortytre shows the equipment for removing salt water from the gas. The natural gas enters the plant on the right.ri. _ By Phil McLeodWORSLEY (StaffV— The $3 million Shell Oil ^scrubbingplant six and one-half miles northeast of here is more than forty per cent complete, construction superintendent Ed Briggs said this week.Although slated f o r completionJune 35, Shell expects to trigger the machinery to set the plant in operation about May 15.Between now and then, superintendent. Briggs and his staff of 85 men realize they have their work cut out.’.Yet.-they stoutly maintain the work will be finished on schedule.The first machinery rolled onto the construction site Oct. 1. last year. Construction crews has managed to keep fairly close to thecut declared the winter had been a little chilly for bis constitution but from the construction end it was close to perfect.*‘Wc have to shut down when itcoos to lower than 30-below-zero... . *lie said with a'slight trace of a shiver, “anti fortunately we haven't had to many of those cold spells. In fact, visitors to the camp thisweek said it had fairly “jumpedout of the ground during the recent warm spell. With temperatures skipped to above the freezingschedule since, despite chilling •; m^k. men were able to discardtheblasts from the weather and project's unique location.The plant is 3-1 miles from the end of the railway at Hines ('reek. All material must be shipped bytruck from the railhead to plant.The heaviest pieces of equipment for the project, six pressurevessels, began arriving at Hines Creek last week. Each weighs 72 tons, is 104 feet long and ten feet in diameter. Truckers suggest each wilt also present a moving problem.But the' fact the heavy equipment must be moved over gravel roads for long distances is the reason -the'job’was tackled during the winter.'Spring thaw renders most of this district where musk^e abounds virtually impassable. Nor dogs the beat of summer solve the problem. With freeze-up in the., fa Me how ever, the heavy equipment needed for. a construction project of this magnitude can nunin safely roll onto fhecumbersome winter clothing and push the project ahead with increased speed.;Winter construction has presented a few other problems to Poole Pritchard (Canadian) Ltd. of Calgary, engineers and contractors for the job. Some they have solved in unusual ways. One especially is of note.With temperatures holding a-bnut the zero to L’O-bclow-zero mark moisture in the gravel, sand and concrete “ngrcgate” quickly freezes.P o u ring concrete in this weather, Mr, Briggs said, requires a special type of ''winterization, In short, before the concrete could be mixed, it had to be winterized by a blast of steam, -Poojr Construction, suh-eonirar-tors fur all the concrete work, hadn't exactly counted on facing such a problem, but. turned to IP 11fm* that vinhifinn* . # * * * • re va nfp'cd I )i caging bo i 1cr fo r a si cam plant. It lias continued steady as Old Faithful herself to meet the company's sleam rccjuirc-inents.Said Mr. Briggs with a wry chuckle as he led the guided (our past the boiler room. You never know when these old timers wilt come in handy again, do you?''Although the plant is still at least three months away from full scale production. Shell is already utilizing one section of the operation. .First step in the “scrubbing of the raw gas is the removal ol sail water and condensate as: (he gas enters the plant. , The necessary equipment is now in production and (he cleaned gas is trucked to Shell’s refinery in (Jramie Prairie.(ins in (he Worsley field is of the rare variety known a “sweet gas meaning ii contains no hydrogen sulfide. Such gas is also extremely volatile and special caution must be taken wiirn workingwith or around it.So far, three wells in fhe area are in production, with at least four more presently being drilled, the three in production ring the 'plant on the north and east sides. One is two and one-half m!h?s oast; another one-ha if mile north-east; and the third, one and one-half miles north.T v a c i n g tin* fiow itf i'no gast’mmu.ii the ulant ludil i: i'- dc-li\erer{ to the loading dwk asgasolines i«. a complicatcii undertaking fur the layman, but bnofhit goes ‘••.nuiMhing like |h:s.. •The raw s i,-. jv. Uwthree fields, arid from additional fields as t!ie are lor a led. to n central gad tierin'.', s\sf mi whiidi en-'ters the plant in 1 hi' •north end.*gas when the plant hi I s. peak production.•The gas juvsses first ill rough a process which removes the salt, water and condensate. This, is the only part of the plant presently in operation. According to Mr. Briggs, ihis step is actually the ‘'serubhing' prue'es.s.- from which most people seem to derive the name of thePlant.From the. ••scrubber. the gas passes into the. glycol contactor,where free water is absorbed.Next into the lean oil absorber where., the. gas stream is mixed with a lean hydro carbon. It leavesthis process known as rich oil and is now a liquid.Step four is a process which 1 fancy to call the burlesque show.The'’ gtis is ■•‘stripped, and tnelighter h\dro'carbons. essentially methane, are rcnun ed. This-process begins a series of eliminationwhere,' by controlling the pressure and temperatures in the various towers, the components oi the raw gas are removed, one at a time, and rollecU d..Step five is the rich oil de-'ethanizer, where again by controlled temperature and pressure, ethane is removed, collected, and piped to the loading dock for sale. The ethane is the first gas cracked from the raw material to be ready for fhe sales market.But Shell ab-o expects to us,- the ethane as a luol galt; tor the plantiI• pro-fucc the intense degrees of heat and pressure nred^d. About gno.ooo.ooo cubic feet of m01 pan-' will be (m- boat each da, \vi*h V. .nno.upo ouhu- j.'io gop*o -^ sa'«* gas. 'From Ihr. !ho ga. w;r ]sthrough lowers-and pres^uve tarik-.heaters and coiidensot-x unfit it is
Newspaper Details
Peace River Record Gazette
Peace River, Alberta, CA
Thu, Feb 21, 1963
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA 14 Sep 2019
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