Challenge

A refinery client needed to load and unload an increasing volume of high paraffin content crude oil from their terminal to meet demand for the product. This required a design to incorporate new infrastructure into their existing rail, tank farm and dock infrastructure to enable the efficient loading and unloading of this crude oil between transportation and storage.

Solution

Valdes engaged its various in-house engineering disciplines, process, mechanical, piping design & layout, pipeline and structural, to design a solution that would meet the demand for loading and unloading the high paraffin content crude oil from rail into a 150,000-barrel tank and then to the marine dock for barge loading and vice versa. The final design provided the client with one mile of new, dedicated 12” electric traced and insulated bidirectional transfer piping from the marine loading pump to the barge loading area. At the dock, this new line combined with existing line from T-5000 loading pumps so that the surge slop tank and removeable pig receiver could be shared between the two lines. Transfer line removeable pigging stations were also proposed at the dock and the tank farm.

Impact

The design prepared by Valdes guided the installation of a large capability storage tank T-1000, steam supply and condensate return nozzles, insulation, pumps, piping, transfer lines, relief valves, and pig launching and receiving stations. It provided the client with built-in efficiencies to reduce heat losses on the tank, a variable frequency drive (VFD) on the barge loading pump, mitigation of pressure surges, and seamlessly integrated everything into the terminal’s existing infrastructure with plans for future development as needed.

Services

Civil

Structural

Pipe Stress Analysis

Piping & Plant Layout

Laser Scanning & Surveying

Project Management

Project Controls