Nestled among the remote sand dunes of the empty quarter in southern Abu Dhabi lies one of the emirate’s most critical oil and gas projects – the ultra-sour Shah gas field. One of the UAE’s most complex upstream developments, the Shah field produces around 10% of the country’s gas output. Techniques honed here are integral to the country’s gas expansion plans.
The field is developed by Adnoc Sour Gas, a 60:40 partnership between state firm Adnoc and US firm Occidental (Oxy) that was formally known as Al Hosn. Debottlenecking has expanded the capacity of the two-train processing facilities on site from 1bn cfd to 1.3bn cfd (MEES, 9 November 2018). Due to the ultra-sour nature of the gas, around 25% hydrogen sulphide and 10% CO2, this results in just 650mn cfd of useable sales gas. Sales gas production rose above 600mn cfd for the first time in the second half of 2018 (see chart). (CONTINUED - 1000 WORDS)
