This Day in History
This Day in History (1962): Final checks prepare plant for May trials
The plant is part of the company's continuing program to conserve gas and increase recoverable oil reserves.
From the April 4, 1962, edition of the Sun and Flare
Engineers are making final mechanical checkouts on each component of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Injection Plant in Abaqiq in preparation for performance tests to begin next month.
At the same time, crews who will take charge are acquiring experience in running the plant under actual operating conditions.
The Abqaiq LPG Plant, which was planned as part of Aramco's continuing program to conserve gas and increase recoverable oil reserves, will collect and compress low-pressure gases and prepare them for injection into the north dome of the 'Ain Dar reservoir.
It has been designed to compress and liquefy 55 million cubic feet of gas per day with a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This capacity is expected to rise in summer and be reduced in cooler weather.
One of the purposes of the May performance tests will be to determine maximum and minimum throughputs of gas that the plant can handle under a wide variety of operating conditions.
Beginning at the 'Ain Dar and Abqaiq GOSPs and the Abqaiq stabilizers, all of which supply the gas to be compressed, and continuing through the pumps for shipping the liquefied petroleum gas back to the 'Ain Dar reservoir, the Abqaiq LPG Plant project is a series of operating units linked as in a long chain.
Each individual component of the project must function perfectly in order for the plant as a whole to perform its job of supplying LPG for injection.
One of the innovations in the overall design of the project is the idea of transporting oil and gas together in one pipeline from the 'Ain Dar and Abqaiq GOSPs for separating in spheroids at Abqaiq, rather than separating the oil and gas at the GOSPs themselves, as is the usual practice.
Caption for the top photo: Abqaiq LPG Plant includes this combustion chamber for 15,000 BHP turbine, which will compress gas to be injected.
Also on this date
2020 - China holds a national day of mourning for martyrs who died in the fight against COVID-19
2010 - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits south of the Mexico-U.S. border, killing two and damaging buildings across the two countries
1996 - Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
1984 - U.S. president Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons
1983 - The Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space
1975 - Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico
1973 - The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are officially dedicated
1969 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee
1964 - The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart
1958 - The CND peace symbol is displayed in public for the first time
1905 - In India, an earthquake hits Kangra Valley, killing 20,000 and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj, and Dharamshala
1841 - U.S. President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first president to die in office and setting record for the briefest administration
1796 - Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture
1581 - Frances Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for completing a circumnavigation of the world
