ABSTRACT
Separation of produced fluids (gas, oil, water) represent the very first task in crude oil field processing. This puts the gas-oil separation step as the initial one in the series of field treatment operations of crude oil. Here, the primary objective is to allow most of the gas to free itself from these valuable hydrocarbons, hence increasing the recovery of crude oil. Oil field separators can be classified into two types based on the number of phases to separate:
1. Two-phase separators, which are used to separate gas from oil in oil fields, or gas from water for gas fields
2. Three-phase separators, which are used to separate the gas from the liquid phase, and water from oil
A gas-oil separator is a vessel that does this job. This chapter handles two-phase separation, where the gas is separated
from the liquid (oil), with the gas and liquid being discharged separately. The theory of gas-oil separation, methods, and equipment used are fully explained. Sizing of gas-oil separators is handled using fundamental concepts of unit operations. Determination of optimum pressure for a gas-oil separator plant and flash equilibrium calculations are presented.
