Critical application issue solved at oil field in the Caspian Sea

The Challenge

This project was undertaken for Kashagan, one of the world’s largest oil development fields in the Northern Caspian Sea with recoverable reserves of 13 billion barrels of crude oil. The reservoir lies some 4,200 meters below the shallow waters of the northern part of the Caspian Sea. Harsh conditions including sea ice during winter, temperature variations from −35 to 40 °C (−31 to 104 °F), extremely shallow water, and high levels of hydrogen sulfide make it one of the most challenging oil mega projects.

The site planned to convert two of the production wells into sour gas injection wells. This project was sent for an open tender and included some of the toughest technical requirements known in the industry, such as: API 15k design, fugitive emission requirements according to ISO 15848, Fire Safe API 6 FA, Safety Integrity Level (SIL) rating and welding specifications.

IMI CCI has had an excellent relationship with the customer from the early stages of development of the fields and has over 150 IMI CCI valves installed in various critical applications in the sites.

The Solution

IMI CCI proposed a 6” API 12.5k DRAG® valve in F22 body material with Inconel DRAG® trim to meet the maximum 189 tph flow rate, inlet pressure of 739 bar and 200 bar differential pressure. The offered valve is in line with existing installed valves at the site that are working perfectly under very similar conditions. Besides the proven performance of the already installed IMI CCI valves, the IMI CCI solution will bring the additional benefit of having parts interchangeability with the existing valves. For IMI CCI this order has increased the footprint in one the most severe applications in the Oil & Gas industry. ​