Oil & Gas

Delivering Technical Solutions Since 1992

Whether the need is for a front-end study, a revamp project, a new process unit design, a utility upgrade or a wastewater treatment plant, Valdes has the experience to deliver your project safely, on time, within budget, and in a controlled manner.

OIL & GAS PROJECT EXPERIENCE

• Alkylation

• Asphalt Production & Handling

• Bottoms Upgrading

• Cat Cracking

• Chemical Units

• Coke Production, Handling & Calcining

• Compression

• Compressor Stations

• Crude & Vacuum Units

• Dehydration

• Firewater & Fire Protection Systems

• Hydrocracking

• Hydrogen Plants

• Hydroprocessing

• Light Ends Processing

• Liquid hydrocarbon pipelines (including surge analysis)

• Natural Gas Facilities

• Natural Gas Pipelines

• Oil Pipelines

• Pressure filtration

• Product Blending & Metering

• Reforming

• Relief Systems & Flares

• Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS)

• Separators/Scrubbers

• Sulfur Recovery

• Tank Farms

• Terminals

• Utility Systems

• Vacuum filtration

• Vapor Recovery

• Water & Waste Treatment

Case Study

Glycol Dehydration Unit (GDU) Fuel Gas Reliability Project

Glycol Dehydration Unit (GDU) Fuel Gas Reliability Project

The fuel gas system at a large refinery had experienced numerous problems with leakage and fouling with sludge. A reliability team of experts identified water as a main precursor of corrosion and sludge formation throughout the fuel gas system. It was determined that a Glycol Dehydration Unit (GDU) needed to be installed to treat the fuel gas supplied to all plant-wide users to improve the fuel gas reliability and to maintain the integrity of the existing fuel gas system.

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Flare Header & Knock Out Drum Redesign

Flare Header & Knock Out Drum Redesign

A refinery-wide flare study revealed a substantial deficiency in the capacity of a knock out drum in one of our client’s units. Without sufficient capacity or retention time, there was a threat of liquids being sent to the flare tip or vapors being routed to the facility's slop line in the event of system over-pressurization. The existing knock out drum was located underground, which also reduced the ability to inspect and maintain the system. Any modification needed to be completed within an existing turnaround schedule.

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New Hydrogen (H2) Unit Offsites Installation

New Hydrogen (H2) Unit Offsites Installation

A refinery owner required additional hydrogen to comply with federal specifications to process low sulfur diesel fuel. The refinery owner and a gas supplier contracted to jointly own and operate a hydrogen plant at the refinery. The hydrogen plant needed to be designed and constructed around the refinery's existing conditions to supply the additional hydrogen needed to process the diesel fuel and fulfill federal regulations.

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Installation of New Sour Water Stripper (SWS) Reboiler System

Installation of New Sour Water Stripper (SWS) Reboiler System

A large refinery client was in need of a team with the capabilities to execute a fast track project to debottleneck the refinery during gasoline season without compromising safety. The project involved interconnecting piping which included heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) from the crude unit to the new sour water stripper (SWS) reboiler in the refinery’s sulfur recovery unit (SRU).

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T-1000 Tank Farm Upgrade

T-1000 Tank Farm Upgrade

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 system, tank farm and dock infrastructure to enable the efficient loading and unloading of this crude oil between transportation and storage.

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Isomerization Unit Upgrade

Isomerization Unit Upgrade

A natural gas liquids (NGL) client needed to upgrade their existing isomerization unit and increase its capacity from 6,000 to 9,000 bpd. This project needed to be divided into two phases and fast tracked to accommodate an upcoming turnaround and a time sensitive completion incentive. This project consisted of an upgrade to the Butamer feed pumps, Hydrogen Cleanup and Recycle, and iC4 Recovery.

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Pipe Bridge Project

Pipe Bridge Project

A refinery client needed design support to reroute eighteen (18) pipe runs that were laid underneath 127th Street. They needed to find a solution that would permit them to maintain and inspect the piping in accordance with API 570.

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Natural Gas Storage Facility Sulfur Removal System

Natural Gas Storage Facility Sulfur Removal System

A natural gas storage facility client had an existing Stretford Processing System for sulfur recovery at its storage facility that was aging and requiring extensive repairs and maintenance in ever more regular intervals. The client was looking to replace this system with one that would still remove the hydrogen sulfide from the natural gas before entering the pipeline while improving reliability and decreasing operational complexity.

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Natural Gas Storage Facility Compressor Replacement

Natural Gas Storage Facility Compressor Replacement

A major supplier of natural gas needed to install a 5,000HP natural gas compressor and required assistance in the design, layout and implementation of the project. To our client, it was very important that they were closely consulted with and that they worked alongside our design team in the development of design and bid packages.

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Control Survey

Control Survey

A client took over an existing plant which required a large amount of redesign work. There were markings at the plant that showed evidence of a plant grid system, however, no drawings could be found indicating monument locations and coordinates. They were in need of a unified network of survey control to align future design and construction goals.

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Coke Drum Inspection

Coke Drum Inspection

A refining client needed to inspect the operating condition of six coke drums during the site turnaround. The drums being inspected were 80-feet tall and posed safety challenges to traditional methods for collecting as-is conditions.

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Construction Assistance and Equipment Layout

Construction Assistance and Equipment Layout

A refining client was swapping out large pieces of equipment in a congested area during a turnaround. Each piece of equipment had unique slopes and connection points that had to be maintained after construction. Additionally, once the equipment was shut down, it contracted and shifted due to temperature changes further complicating its extraction and replacement.

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Tank Venting Studies for Tank Turnaround

Tank Venting Studies for Tank Turnaround

Leading up to a turnaround (TAR), a refinery client needed to validate the venting design for various tanks. The client’s schedule was aggressive to meet the TAR schedule.

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Portland Terminal Renewable Diesel Conversion

Portland Terminal Renewable Diesel Conversion

A midstream client is preparing to transition its fuel storage facility from crude oil to renewable fuels over the next four years and needed the ability to track project progress towards the final goal.

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LPG Cavern Study

LPG Cavern Study

A client in the Oil & Gas industry has a large underground storage of natural gas. Due to the storage area's close proximity to aboveground storage tanks and the risk of the tanks settling, the client annually needs to know of any changes in elevation of multiple permanent field monuments alerting them to potential ground settling above the storage cavern.

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Improve Reliability of Carbon Monoxide (CO) Boiler Soot Blowers

Improve Reliability of Carbon Monoxide (CO) Boiler Soot Blowers

A large refining client needed to modify their carbon monoxide (CO) boiler soot blowers to improve the fluid cracking process (FCC) unit’s reliability. Parts for the soot blowers were becoming hard to source for the 40-year-old technology and timely updates to the equipment were needed to avoid damage to the boiler.

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Cooling Tower Replacement

Cooling Tower Replacement

A large refinery client had a Cooling Water Tower (CWT) that was at end of life. The CWT needed to be rebuilt to maintain its original performance and ensure long-term reliability. Valdes guided the client in exploring their options, including the rental of a temporary tower or running with existing towers in operation with strategically-placed piping. The second option was ultimately selected.

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Reformer Unit Turnaround Equipment Replacement

Reformer Unit Turnaround Equipment Replacement

A large refinery client needed various equipment replaced sooner than expected due to corrosion. For each of the replacement projects, there was an increasing risk of reaching end of asset life-cycle prior to the planned replacement scheduled. The replacements were originally contemplated for a future turnaround, however, it was apparent that the work needed to execute the replacements would need to be ready for an upcoming turnaround schedule.

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Full Service Project Delivery Process

Oil & Gas

FRONT-END ENGINEERING & DESIGN

Business Planning

Project Development

Project Economic Analysis

DETAIL ENGINEERING

Project Execution

Turnaround

PROJECT TURNOVER

Start-Up

Commissioning

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