NEWS/

• Back to News

Press Release from NAK HaftaGaz Ukraine (March 15, 2003)

Excepts from a Press Release from March 15, 2003
by Stanislav Vlasenko

On March 12, 2003 the Affiliated Company Ukrgazodobycha, the main gas producer with the corporation NAK Neftegaz Ukraine, officially put into operation the Lokachi Gas Deposit in the Volyn Region. Taking part in the opening ceremony were Yurii Boiko, the Chairman of the Board of NAK Neftegaz Ukraine, Ilya Rybchich, the General Director of Ukrgazodobycha, and Anatolii Frantsuz, Chairman of the Volynsk Regional Government Administration.

In 1999 an exploratory process line was built and put into operation for production of natural gas; three wells were connected to this line, the gas from which did not contain hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans. This made the use of traditional Ukrainian-made cleaning equipment possible. For cleaning gas from other wells containing sulfide and mercaptans the project called for dual cleaning process using special equipment. As such equipment is not produced in Ukraine, it was decided to call an international tender "For theEngineering and Procurement of Equipment for the Lokachi Gas Cleaning and Treatment Unit. This tender was won by the U.S. company BSI Industries, Inc.

The Gas Cleaning and Treatment Unit prepares natural gas for transportation to the consumer by removing hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans, and condensed moisture. The cleaning process uses hard sorbents-zeolites; today this is considered the most efficient and ecologically sound method. In accordance with the process method, zeolites undergo regeneration, as a result of which gas is produced that is used as fuel-gas for a gas turbine electric power station that is located next to the gas cleaning and treatment unit. It is intended for the production of electric power and its supply into the power network of the Volyn Region. The Lokachi Gas Field Electric Power Station consists of two Centaur-50 generator units by Solar Turbines, the power of each being 4,400 kilowatts . For environmental control the Gas Cleaning and Treatment Unit has four stationary and one mobile atmospheric pollutant monitoring stations, which were also supplied by BSI Industries, Inc.