Mari Petroleum's Sujawal gas field: beware of fire and 'Summer Invaders', warns hydrocarbon producers

The fire we desperately need for cooking in our kitchen poses the biggest threat to the lives of those engineers and labourers working day in, day out at the exploration and production sites of hydrocarbons.
In a recent trip to Mari Petroleum Company Limited's (MPCL) gasfield at Sujawal, about 180-kilometre off Karachi, this reporter got a fascinating exposure to, under what circumstances, the cheap but scarce source of energy was being drilled, processed and produced in a highly technical manner.
What this scribe noticed at the deserted facility was the fact that fire and 'Summer Invaders' (snakes and scorpions) make this technical job life-threatening. While the scorching summer is almost in to usher poisonous reptiles, the engineers at PMCL's gas plant are working 28/14 (days) to ensure an uninterrupted supply of gas to SSGC's domestic and industrial consumers.
M. Sibtain Gohar, a field incharge at Mari's Sujawal X-1 facility, explained to Business Recorder what phases the valued gas undergo after being dug out from thousands of metres beneath the surface.
"The raw gas passes through different installed packages of the processing plant," said the process engineer affiliated with MPCL since 2012.
A gas plant comprises a wellhead, raw gas cooler, three-phase or high pressure separator, low pressure separator, gas-flaring system, Gas Dehydration Unit (DHU) and metering skid.
A wellhead, also called Christmas tree, is a sort of big pipeline of a size ranging from seven to 26-inch diameters. On a rig platform, the tree is vertically installed at least 2,200 metre-deep into the ground to drill the raw gas out at a pressure as high as 10,000 pounds per square inch (PSI). "Exceeding this pressure it would blow up," said Gohar.
From here a pipeline transports the raw gas to the processing plant where the same is removed off impurities or ingredients the customer, SSGC in Mari's case, does not want.
In the plant, a Gas Cooler is the first destination for the raw gas to be cooled down to 110 from 140 Fahrenheit. From here the raw gas lands into a three-phase High Pressure Separator (HPS) in the form of liquid hydrocarbons, water and gas.
"This process we call physical separation," said the engineer. This machine separates the three ingredients, he added.
Water, being heavier than liquid hydrocarbons and gas, goes to a pit and evaporates leaving gas and 900 PSI condensate top move into the 50-60 PSI Low Pressure Separator (LPS).
Here the light gas is separated from flare gas which forwards to the flares tag. The LPS already has seen the liquid hydrocarbons off to a storage tank. "The gas (in LPS) still has water contents in gaseous form," said the engineer.
Next step is DHU, which absorbs water from the gas. "DHU showers glycol on the gas which absorbs water contents in the moisture form," said the field in charge.
In the Unit, water comes down to allow dry gas go up to reach a filter separator that further filters the remaining water content, if any.
"The SSGC, as per bilateral agreement, wants no water contents in gas," the engineer explained as to why his company was taking so much pain to make gas waterless.
The pure gas available then travels through a pipeline to pass through the Metering Skid. The gas produced is measured to be added to the SSGC's grid. A brown colored SSGC pipeline can be seen attached to Mari's meter.
When this scribe was taking notes, the meter was showing the current supply to SSGC at 12.8712 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD).
This supply goes double when MPCL's Sujjal-1 Well also starts supplying gas to the company. Sujjal-1 is nowadays non-operational for an agreement with the SSGC is pending for a bilateral signature.
This achievement, however, comes with a great risk to the life of at least 100 high and low-ranked staffers working at Mari's Sujawal gasfield.
"Fire happens to be the biggest danger here," said Lieutenant-Colonel Dr Saeed Ahmed Siddiqui ((retd), senior medical officer at the facility.
Thanking heavens that no fire incident had ever taken place at the gasfield, the retired army officer showed this reporter a fire water tank that contained 1500 barrels or 0.23 million liters of water.
The company's auto-run firefighting system has an underground water pipes system and several portable and heavy trolley-mounted fire extinguishers placed at over a dozen outlets across the facility.
"We have carbon dioxide for extinguishing oil-related fire and dry chemical powder to douse others," said Dr Saeed, who later demonstrated a simulation exercise of firefighting.
Snakebite appears to be another life-threatening concern of Mari's workers at Sujawal. "DO NOT BE THE VICTIM," reads a note on the plant's metering unit which is headlined as "Summer Invaders". These invaders are scorpions and snakes, their photos displayed on the notice board.
"While walking at night: wear suitable shoes, watch out your step and don't walk in the dark areas," the workers have been warned.
Advising good house-keeping at their accommodation, the notice warn the workers against turning their rooms' outside light off, leaving their shoes outside at night and wearing shoes without checking.
"Remember: If you get stung by scorpion or bitten by a snake, do not panic, stay calm and seek medical help," it concludes.
That is not all the MPCL has done to keep its employees safe. A number of "Snake catchers" have also been placed at different places in case someone confronts a venomous reptile.
"It was twice or thrice that a snake had been seen and killed," recalled Zahoor Ahmed, a process engineer, adding "No victims fortunately, so far".
Dr Saeed, who is running a field clinic at the facility, says he had enough of the anti-snake venom medicine.
Showing at least 20 viles of Snake Venum Antiserum in the bedroom-size fridge of his containerised dispensary, the doctor said he only had life-saving drugs at the facility. An Ambulance was observed standby there to, what he said, deal with an emergency. "We treat the patients to a stable level and refer him to the hospital," the doctor said.
What, however, intensifies the sense of danger at the gasfield is the fact that the nearest hospital is located from the facility at a long distance of 32 kilometres in Golarchi.