Multiphase wellhead boosting

Enhanced LPPU™

Field-proven LPPU platform: 3 offshore installations, 2 fields, since 2014 Built to order for each well

For wells that still contain producible fluids but can no longer overcome the pressure of the common production header.

How it works Ask about Enhanced LPPU

At a glance

A proven platform, built to order.

Up to about 5xSuction pressure, standard pump

4 framesELPPU-200, 300, 500 and 900

3 installationsLPPU offshore, two fields, since 2014

Built to orderFor each well and host

Overview

A liquid piston, not a compressor.

What it does: A surface multiphase wellhead booster for liquid-loaded and shut-in wells. It handles gas, oil, water and produced sand together, with no gas compressor: the gas is compressed by the rising liquid column while the circulation pump moves liquid.
Track record: An enhancement of the field-proven LPPU platform: three offshore installations across two fields, the first in 2014 (3 facilities for PETRONAS). Units are built to order for each well.
Deployment routes: Service campaign, lease with support, or an engineered package.

How it works

On your platform: the wells unload and keep flowing.

Without the Enhanced LPPU™, a well that has loaded up with liquid stops. It is shut in to build pressure, reopens for a short while and loads up again, so it produces only part of the time. The Enhanced LPPU™ lowers the pressure the wells work against at the wellhead: that is what unloads them, and it keeps them unloaded and flowing. It boosts the full multiphase wellstream toward header pressure, at up to about five times the suction pressure (absolute pressure ratio).

01
Arrive
A supply vessel brings the Enhanced LPPU™ alongside, and the platform crane lifts the skid onto the main deck. Units are built to order for each well.
02
Tie in
A suction spool from the test header up to the unit, and a discharge spool down into the production header.
03
Line up
The wells that need it are lined up to the unit through the test header. Each unit is sized on the field’s own data.
04
Keep flowing
Lowering the pressure the wells work against is what unloads them. On the unit they stay unloaded and keep flowing, instead of loading up and being shut in again.

An illustration of how the unit is used on a platform, not a project design. Each unit is engineered to its well and host.

On a field

See it working on a platform.

The interactive field scene needs JavaScript. The How it works section above explains each step.

Illustration only: not a real field, not to scale, no units on screen.

At your site

What it needs on your platform, and what it does not.

On your platform

Deck space within reach of the platform crane
A suction tie-in from the test header
A discharge tie-in into the production header
Built to order for each well and host

What the skid does not need

No gas compressor
No upstream separator
No compressor lube or seal oil

Applications and enquiry data

Where it is used, and what to send.

Applications

Production boosting for declining wells
Idle-well reactivation
Liquid-loaded gas-well unloading
Low-pressure well testing
Marginal-field tie-backs

Data for an enquiry

Recent well-test and decline data
Flowing and shut-in wellhead pressure
Header or separator pressure
Gas, condensate and water rates
Composition, sand and sour components
Space, fuel gas or platform power

Send your data See the full screening checklist

Is it a fit?

Where the Enhanced LPPU™ does its best work.

The well still holds producible fluids.

It is for wells that still contain producible fluids but can no longer overcome the pressure of the common production header.

Liquid-loaded and shut-in wells.

A surface multiphase wellhead booster for liquid-loaded and shut-in wells.

Gas, oil, water and sand together.

It handles gas, oil, water and produced sand together, with no gas compressor.

Sour service and high water cut are in the standard design.

Wetted parts are duplex stainless steel for H₂S and CO₂ service on the ELPPU-300, ELPPU-500 and ELPPU-900 (carbon steel or duplex on the ELPPU-200), and any water cut within the project envelope is covered. Very dry gas wells are checked for piston-liquid make-up.

Good to know

The pump moves liquid; the liquid column does the compressing.

The circulation pump is rotating equipment. The gas is compressed by the rising liquid column; the circulation pump moves liquid.

It boosts the full wellstream.

It boosts pressure; it does not separate phases. Where the requirement is clean separated phases, the right answer depends on the duty and is set in the enquiry.

Every capacity figure states its suction pressure.

Duty falls as suction pressure falls, so every figure we quote states the suction it applies at.

Fine sand: a Sep-iSYS™ Desander goes upstream.

Where fine sand has to come out of the wellstream, the Sep-iSYS™ Desander goes upstream of the unit.

Surface boosting answers a surface constraint.

Where the well is limited by inflow, skin or downhole lift, a surface machine is the wrong intervention.

Proven platform

A proven platform, built to order today.

Enhanced LPPU™ is an enhancement of the LPPU platform: three offshore LPPU installations across two fields, the first in 2014, now re-engineered with the liquid piston. The original LPPU relied on an external motive gas supply to push liquid out of its vessel; the Enhanced LPPU needs no motive gas, because its own pumped liquid does the work. One platform, three names: the LPPU is the original platform, the Sep-iSYS™ LPPU is its name in the Sep-iSYS™ portfolio, and the Enhanced LPPU™ is the same platform re-engineered with the liquid piston, the form in which it is offered today.

See the track record