ExxonMobil's Experience with Sour Gas Treating and Acid Gas Handling

Abstract

Development of sour gas reserves involves extraction, treating, and disposal steps that can be operationally complex. Historically, highly sour gas reserves are left undeveloped because of the technical challenges and high production costs. These reserves are now being reevaluated as potential sources of supply in areas with high demand for natural gas. To address development challenges, ExxonMobil has applied a dual approach to advancing technologies. First, our broad experiences and well-defined best practices are used to select technologies that best meet the "routine" aspects of sour natural gas development and production. Second, ExxonMobil's industry-leading research capabilities are applied to create new technologies that make treating of difficult sour gas streams feasible. ExxonMobil has over 70 years of experience in operating and developing technologies for gas treating. Relevant experiences will be described along with the efforts to develop and apply innovative technical solutions needed to develop these reserves. Examples include FLEXSORB™ SE solvent for acid gas enrichment and tail gas clean up, the Controlled Freeze Zone™ process for separating significant concentration of contaminants from natural gas, and cMIST™ technology for dehydration and selective H2S removal from raw gas. Each of these technologies will be discussed in some detail, as will our general experience with sour gas treating. This paper illustrates how new technologies developed by one company can become part of the body of applied science that ultimately benefits the broader industry.