Construction wraps on Delaware basin gas processing complex

Construction is now fully completed on all three cryogenic natural gas processing trains at Altus Midstream Co.’s Diamond Cryo Complex (DCC) in Alpine High, in southern Reeves County, Tex., in the Delaware basin (OGJ Online, Aug. 9, 2018).

Saulsbury Industries Inc., Odessa, Tex., recently completed construction on the remaining two of three 200-MMcfd gas processing plants, associated liquid stabilization, slug catches, and gas treating and residue gas compression units at the DCC, the service provider said on Dec. 4.

Completed on schedule and on budget, the entire project required 1.8 million work hours over the course of 14 months, without a recordable incident or injury, Saulsbury said.

Altus Midstream—a jointly owned partnership of Apache Corp. and Kayne Anderson Acquisition Corp.—commissioned the first of the DCC’s three gas processing trains in May (OGJ Online, June 5, 2019).

The second processing train reached start-up in July, Altus Midstream said in its second-quarter 2019 quarterly earnings report to investors.

Once commissioning of the third train is completed, DCC will have a combined cryogenic processing capacity of 600 MMcfd and be able to produce an estimated 60,000-75,000 b/d of NGLs for Apache.

Start-up of the third train is scheduled by yearend, Altus Midstream told investors in its quarterly earnings report for third-quarter 2019.

To date, the first two trains have demonstrated more than 99 percent ethane recovery operating in full recovery mode, with 100 percent recovery of propane, butanes and heavier liquids, the operator said.

All three cryogenic trains feature Honeywell UOP LLC’s supplemental rectification with reflux (SRX) processing technology to optimize processing economics with better NGL recoveries in both ethane recovery and rejection mode vs. more commonly used processing methods in the Permian basin.

Contact Robert at [email protected].