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Flash fire takes down Prudhoe Bay plant Gathering Center 2 idled as a precaution, resulting in significantly lower Alaska North Slope crude oil production over several days Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
A flash fire shut down a major oil processing facility in the Prudhoe Bay oil field, causing a substantial drop in Alaska North Slope crude production.
The Feb. 29 incident at Gathering Center 2, in Prudhoe’s western operating area, caused no injuries and little if any damage to the facility. But it initially rattled BP workers, as the gathering center handles dangerous natural gas.
Prudhoe operator BP launched an investigation to determine what led to the fire, which occurred at an unoccupied module and extinguished itself.
Operators shut down Gathering Center 2 “as a precaution,” said Steve Rinehart, spokesman for BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.
The gathering center is one of six major oil-gas-water separation plants in the vast Prudhoe Bay oil field.
Significant production impact The shutdown caused a significant drop in North Slope crude production over several days.
Total North Slope production on Feb. 28, the day before the fire, was 619,114 barrels, according to the Alaska Department of Revenue’s oil production database.
The next day, with the shutdown of Gathering Center 2, production fell by 8.8 percent to 564,699 barrels.
BP isolated the module where the fire occurred and began bringing Gathering Center 2 back online early on March 1.
But production lagged during the plant ramp-up, remaining well below 600,000 barrels per day until March 5, when the production reached 609,058 barrels — just shy of the average daily level for the month of February.
Fire involved compressor unit BP on March 4 filed a “report of accidental gas release” with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
The two-page report indicates no natural gas was lost in the Feb. 29 incident.
It says the incident happened around 10:15 a.m. at what’s known as Skid 461, the K-7001 LPS compressor unit. BP spokesman Rinehart described this unit as one of two “low-pressure gas-handling modules” at Gathering Center 2.
Employees “observed a flame and heard a noise” at the module, he said.
The report filed with the AOGCC provides this technical description:
“While electricians were performing electrical breaker Preventative Maintenance (PM) activities a failure occurred which resulted in a power failure/disruption that impacted the plant produced water injection system and the Waste Heat Recovery (WHRU) circulation system associated with the LPS Compressors. This created a no flow condition in the WHRU. The water temperature and pressure increased to a condition that caused the pressure safety valves (PSVs) on the system to lift/relieve as designed. Due to the presence of hydrocarbon contamination in the WHRU water system, when the PSVs relieved in close proximity to the LPS Turbine exhaust stack, hydrocarbon that had accumulated under the PSVs hit the hot exhaust stack and resulted in a flash fire.”
Crews working in the vicinity reported the event, and at 10:18 a.m. operators initiated an emergency shutdown of the K-7001 unit, the AOGCC report said. At 10:25 a.m., the entire Gathering Center 2 plant was shut down “as a precautionary measure.”
The report continued: “All personnel were accounted for and there were no injuries associated with the incident. Shortly after the event it was determined that there was no evidence of damage to the plant or the compressor. The skid was isolated and a restart of the facility was initiated due to the extremely cold temperatures (-40F).”
BP started a formal investigation to determine the root cause of the fire, and “lessons learned” will be shared with the company’s other North Slope operations, the report said.
Kelly Nicolello, assistant state fire marshal, told Petroleum News his office is not conducting an investigation of the incident.
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