Crude Oil Pumping Station

CRUDE OIL PUMPING STATION

For reasons of efficiency, economy, and safety, the preferred method of moving large quantities of petroleum or petroleum products on land is by dedicated, large diameter, buried, transmission pipeline. Due to the friction loss created by liquids moving through the piping the pipelines experience pressure losses over the length of the piping. To address this pumping stations are located at regular intervals along the pipeline to boost the pressure to desired levels.

Typically, a pumping station includes:

• Multiple booster centrifugal pumps arranged in parallel with block valves, suction basket filter, check valves at each pump, field instrument, so that any pump can operate independently of the rest, feeding the next pumps;
• High pressure, multistage centrifugal pumps, operating in parallel and complete with accessories as per booster feed pump.

The pumps may be driven by a variety of internal combustion engines and electric motors.

The interconnecting piping and valves are completely assembled on skid frame.

The other major factor in loss control at these stations is the lack of direct human supervision. Most of these stations are unmanned and located in sparsely populated areas.

A fire or other problems can go unnoticed for extended periods of time unless proper monitoring and controls are in place. In addition, even after a problem is detected, the nearest fire or maintenance personnel may be too far away for a timely response.

For these reasons, pumping station operators need to place a strong emphasis upon automatic and remote detection, alarms, ESD systems, and operating/loss control systems.