Research Progress on Recovery and Utilization Technology of Vented Gas in Offshore Oil and Gas Fields

Under accident conditions, the flare venting system ensures safe venting of combustible gases. Under normal working conditions, to meet the stable operation requirements in the oilfield production process, the natural gas will inevitably generate in the flare venting system, resulting in the waste of resources and environmental damage. Due to the limitations of small space in the offshore oil and gas fields, the existing land-based vented gas recovery technology can not meet the practical requirements. The existing gas recovery technology mainly focuses on the low-pressure gas generated by the process treatment, including the low-pressure flash steam recovery technology applied in the gas field, and the low-pressure gas recovery technology of the pressurized jet device and the compressor used in the oil field. These technologies effectively recycle low pressure gas, which is not the entire source of flare vented gas. With the continuous improvement of environmental protection requirements and the deepening of low-carbon sustainable development ideas, the high-efficiency recycling of vented gas has been attracting the attention of researchers, and related technologies have also been applied on offshore platforms. Considering that the overall vented gas recovery technology started late, according to the characteristics of offshore oil and gas fields and the difficulties in vented gas recovery, the future development direction was discussed in this study.