OMV Petrom invested around 200 million euro between 2010-2019 for development of a centralized gas treatment hub serving domestic gas production in the South-East of Romania.
The latest stage of this project consisted in an investment of 50 million euro starting 2017, for a new efficient gas treatment process. Currently, the unit is tested and is expected to become fully operational in July. “The Hurezani gas hub serves four of the most important gas producing fields in OMV Petrom’s portfolio, located in Gorj county and includes the largest gas treatment facility in the country. This investment allows Romania to benefit from reliable gas supply now and in the future”, said Peter Zeilinger, member of OMV Petrom Executive Board responsible for Upstream.
The approx. 50 million euro investment covered the construction of a gas treatment facility with a maximum capacity of 6 million standard cubic meters of natural gas per day, which ensures separation of natural gas from condensate, based on a low temperature separation process. Also, pipeline infrastructure of over 12 kilometers was built as part of same investment to ensure connection to both production sites and national transport systems for gas and condensate. In 2018, production from the fields connected to the Hurezani centralized gas treatment hub amounted to 1.5 billion standard cubic meters, which is equivalent to the energy for heating 1.4 million homes.
Approximately 200 million euro were invested for developing the Hurezani centralized gas treatment hub, in three stages. This included 135 million euro for the gas compression unit commissioned in 2010, around 13 million euro for the dehydration unit commissioned in 2015 – which removes water from natural gas, and approximately 50 million euro for the latest project – CHD Hurezani (Centralized Hydrocarbon Dewpoint Hurezani). The latest phase, which includes gas treatment units and pipeline infrastructure, completes the overall gas compression and treatment chain. The new gas treatment facility reflects latest industry standards in terms of technology.
The project increases energy efficiency and contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emission, while ensuring safe operations for the infrastructure on the long-term future. Construction works started in 2017 and amounted to approximately 500,000 man-hours, without HSSE incidents.