METHOD OF PROCESSING A MULTIPHASE WELL EFFLUENT MIXTURE

摘要

A method of processing a multiphase well effluent mixture comprises : transferring the multiphase well effluent mixture (G+L) via a multiphase well effluent flowline (3, 23) to a gas liquid separator (5, 24) in which the multiphase well effluent mixture is separated into substantially gaseous and liquid fractions; transferring the substantially liquid fraction L into a liquid flowline (7, 25) in which a liquid pump (8, 29) is arranged; transferring the substantially gaseous fraction into a gas flowline (6, 26) in which a gas compressor (10, 30) is arranged; protecting the gas compressor (10, 30) against pressure and/or liquid surges by recirculating a recycled gas stream (G<SUB>hot</SUB>) via a gas recycling conduit (14, 44) through the gas compressor in response to detection of a pressure and/or liquid surge in the multiphase well effluent mixture; cooling the recycled gas stream by injecting cooled recycled liquid (L<SUB>cold</SUB>) from the liquid flowline (7, 25) into the recycled gas stream (G<SUB>hot</SUB>) which recycled liquid is cooled in a heat exchanger (9, 49), which may be a compact liquid-liquid heat exchanger that is about ten times smaller than a bulky gas- liquid heat exchanger that could be arranged in the gas recycling conduit (14, 44).