VRU Refurbishment for Improving Environmental Performance at Older Wells
The Vapor Recovery Unit Advantage
The Vapor Recovery Unit (VRU) is an essential element for harnessing the full potential of your well site or facility. When properly sized and efficiently operating, a well-functioning VRU generates incremental revenue by selling BTU-rich tank vapors instead of flaring or combusting them, which also reduces emissions from oil and gas production operations.
As we noted in our article How VRUs Help You Take Advantage of Permit By Rule in Texas, we noted that currently the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) allows operators to take a 95% credit against PTE by using a Vapor Recovery Unit (compressor) to capture tank vapor gas. That is often a reduction sufficient to qualify for the less stringent Permit by Rule requirements for air permitting and avoid expensive and time-consuming Title V permits.
The advantage of qualifying for Permit by Rule is operators may begin flowback and production before receiving permit approval.
Strategies for Extending Environmental Performance to Older Wells
Over time, however, natural production declines typically mean a VRU that was correctly sized in the early life of the well becomes too large and expensive to operate at lower volumes further down the decline curve.
E&P operators with an active drilling program can move VRUs from one location to another to cope with the reduced volumes, but often lack an economic alternative for older legacy wells.
Purchasing or leasing a brand-new unit may be cost prohibitive, both in terms of the additional capital investment and higher operating costs associated with fuel or powering a larger VRU. The alternative is to flare contaminated tank vapors, resulting in loss of product and additional emissions.
An effective strategy for extending environmental performance to older wells and maximizing their value is to refurbish older VRUs that have been taken out of service. It is common for operators to remove a VRU from an older site once production and vapor volumes have declined and put it in storage until needed, which may be months or even years away. These idle units represent spare vapor recovery capacity that can be cost-effectively redeployed to older wells and facilities.
VRU Refurbishment – Maximize the Value of Your VRU Investment
Platinum Control Technologies offers VRU refurbishment services as just another way to help you maximize the value of your VRU fleet.
By refurbishing and/or retrofitting an older VRU to like-new condition, you can deploy idle equipment to older wells to generate additional revenue and improve your environmental performance.
We work on both reciprocating engine and screw-type compressors. To see the process, check out our VRU Refurbishment services.
Advantages of VRU Refurbishment
There are several operational, financial and environmental benefits for refurbishing your VRUs:
Maximize the investment in your VRU fleet.
Extend environmental performance improvements to older wells in a cost-effective way.
For complete skid solutions, your equipment is returned to you in like-new condition with a 1-year warranty
Convert waste streams into revenue at older wells
Regulatory compliance
More efficient operations from right-sized equipment
Improved safety profile