Saturday, February 01, 2020

18. Jurnal Paper (2020): Developing Parametric Cost Estimation Model for Rich Acid Gas Development Projects

by: Autie M Putri and Trian H Asmoro

Unlike typical gas field, the development of a sour or acid gas field is far more complex as it possesses higher risks and requires upscale technology for extraction and processing. Historically, sour or acid gas reserves left undeveloped due to the high investment requirement. However, as the worldwide gas reserves potential are depleted, it starts to gain attraction for investors to be developed.

Parametric approach is widely used to provide estimation with high level of accuracy, typically conducted during conceptual or appraisal phase. Gas composition is a significant factor that will affect a gas processing plant cost, as it will dictate the technology and equipment used. Therefore, the gas composition shall be taken into account when the parametric approach is utilizes. This paper aims to provide approach to estimate cost for gas processing plant during conceptual phase or appraisal phase by taking into account the gas composition factor. The outcome will provide ballpark estimates as estimates benchmark for a detail cost estimation and furthermore assist investment decision making.

Que$tor by IHS (Q3 2014 version) is used to calculate cost for gas processing facilities with different level of CO2 and H2S compositions in the raw feed gas. The costs are then plotted to understand whether there will be any mathematical relationship that can be further analyzed. The result shows that there are specific percentage of cost increase in line with the increase of CO2 and H2S level. The model will then be tested against past sour gas processing plant and the results fall within 10% range from the actual cost. Differences of the model estimate and actual cost may come from adjustments required to consider some factors such as technology used, project location, project timing (macro economy and global industry situation).

Keywords: gas development project, rich acid gas, sour gas, cost estimation, Que$tor IHS

Find out on IAFMI Journal 10th edition.