Part of ROO’s long-term programme to modernize its facilities includes upgrading five degassing stations (DSs), Shamiya, Markazia, Janubia, Qurainat and DS-3, across the next three years, with FWKO vessels.

Rumaila’s degassing facilities’ first stage separators date back 40-50 years and were originally designed to only separate oil and gas. Nowadays, facilities have to work harder to minimize the water-in-oil, with Dehydrators and Desalters (D&Ds) placed under increasing pressure to separate off the water. The FWKOs are therefore being installed to meet this challenge of higher water cut and are critical in being able to develop and treat oil today and in the future.

The FWKOs are three-stage separators, enabling the separation of oil, gas and water at the front-end of the facility. Each FWKO has the capacity to significantly reduce water cut down to 10%; the remaining water is then removed from the oil by the D&D units. With the FWKOs in place, the separated gas will be more stable, cleaner and of a much higher quality.