Venezuelan blender at 100,000 barrels an hour

A Jiskoot crude oil blending system recently commissioned at the Jose Terminal in Venezuela will substantially increase the Ameriven export of Leona crude by up to 100,000 barrels an hour

A Jiskoot crude oil blending system operating at up to 100,000 barrels an hour (bbl/hr) has been installed and commissioned to substantially increase the export of Leona crude by Ameriven through the Jose Terminal in Venezuela.

The blender, which has two thirty-six inch feed-stock lines and a forty-eight inch blend header will blend Merey (30API) and Mesa (16API) crude oils to produce a (nominal) Leona crude with an API gravity of 23-25 (at 60F) directly to the export loading platforms 8km away.

A unique feature of the system is its ability to blend at flow rates from 5000 to 100,000bbl/hr.

With the feed-stocks supplied by four 2500 hp fixed-output pumps, with no re-circulation facilities, the blender was designed to operate at pressures of 100 to 400 psi and withstand pressures drops of between 1 and 300 psi across the control valves while still maintaining blend control and product quality.

The system includes two panel-mounted Jiskoot InSight controllers using real-time closed-loop 3-term PID control to guarantee the blended product remains as specified at all times during the batch and a JetMix power mixing loop fitted with a Solartron densitometer used by the controllers to continuously maintain batch quality.

The JetMix system has no pressure drop and ensures a completely homogeneous product is measured by the densitometer and leaves the blender.

The InSight controllers are linked to the site SCADA by Modbus and maintain blend specification even in the event of product starvation.

All the loading jetties are also fitted with Jiskoot custody-transfer sampling systems which can be used to validate the blend quality and for B, S and W custody transfer measurement.

Due to the large 'line-fill' of blended product between the blender and the loading point the system has 'displacement' and 're-circulation' features allowing product to be routed back to the tank farm from the loading jetty via a 20inch line.

It can also be configured to operate as a dual bulk loading system and meter two different crude oils through each of the two 36inch streams.

System repeatability and accuracy were a high priority for this project as any deviation from the crude oil specification at the loading jetties can result in penalties.

The system will be used alongside the two existing similar Jiskoot blenders supplied to the Jose facility in 1998.

Jiskoot was selected because of the company's expertise and track record in the design and supply of high accuracy turnkey blending systems with density and viscosity control for the crude oil and bunker fuel markets.

Back to top