Static Equipment in Oil & Gas Industry

The majority of mechanical types of equipment found in oil and gas facilities belong to the static equipment group, which comprises pressure vessels, heat exchangers, storage tanks, fired Heaters, pig launchers, etc. In this article, images of some of such static or stationery equipment will be provided mainly to visualize the design guys who have not yet visited an actual working site or construction site.

Horizontal & Vertical Pressure Vessel: A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold fluids, i.e, gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different (higher or lower) from the ambient pressure. Pressure vessels are designed following ASME BPVC codes.

Columns: Tall vertical pressure vessels Have internals like trays, packing, distributors, demisters, etc. for separation and other applications.

Buried/ Mounded Storage Bullets: Bullets are large, high-pressure storage vessels. Generally used for storing LPG / LNG. Buried / Mounded to safeguard against any accident.

Atmospheric Storage Tanks: Large, Atmospheric pressure storage equipment. Depending on the fluid stored, the tank roof design will be of the fixed roof or floating roof type. Click here to learn more about various atmospheric storage tanks.

Storage Spherical tanks: Spheres are very large, high-pressure storage equipment. Generally used for storing huge quantities of LPG / LNG / NGL.

Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers: Most commonly used heat exchanger. Used for high-pressure, high-duty applications.

Air Cooled Heat Exchangers: Also called dry-type cooling towers, Air is used as a cooling medium.

Plate Type Heat Exchangers (Fig. 7): Compact type heat exchanger, Used for medium pressure, high duty applications. Can work with very low approach temperatures.

Fired Heaters (Fig. 7): A fired heater comprises a furnace where the flame impinges directly on the tubes/surfaces containing the fluid to be heated which include process fluid, thermic fluids, air, water, and so on.

The furnace is also called a radiant zone as major heat transfer is by radiation, followed by the convection zone wherein the heat transfer is predominantly by convection.

PIG Launchers / Receivers: A pig launcher is a device that uses a pressurized container to shoot a cleaning device (“pig”) through the pipeline to perform a variety of functions including cleaning, monitoring, and maintaining the pipe.

Flare Stack and Flare & Knock Out Drum:

Jet Ejector and Scrubber:

MSV Skid:

Wellhead:

Part of this article is prepared by Mr. Satish Atmanathan, a senior oil, and gas professional with extensive work experience. For a more detailed explanation of all the above parts and visualization, listen directly to him in the following video: