Oil & Gas separation

An oil/gas separator is a pressure vessel used for separating a well stream into gaseous and liquid components. They are installed either in an onshore processing station or on an offshore platform. Based on the vessel configurations, the oil/gas separators can be divided into horizontal, vertical, or spharical separators. In teams of fluids to be separated, the oil/gas separators can be grouped into gas/liquid two-phase separator or oil/gas/water three-phase separator.

Based on separation function, the oil/gas separators can also classified into primary phase separator, test separator, high-pressure separator, low-pressure separator, deliquilizer, degasser, etc. To meet process requirements, the oil/gas separators are normally designed in stages, in which the first stage separator is used for priliminary phase separation, while the second and third stage separator are applied for further treatment of each individual phase (gas, oil and water). Depending on a specific application, oil/gas separators are also called deliquilizer or degasser. The deliquilizers are used to remove dispersed droplets from a bulk gas stream; while the degassers are designed to remove contaimined gas bubbles from the bulk liquid stream.