Debottlenecking

Debottlenecking in an oil and gas facility is the process of finding whatever equipment, line, or operating condition is limiting throughput (the “bottleneck”) and modifying or re‑operating the system so overall capacity, reliability, or efficiency can increase without building an entirely new plant.

Facilities almost always have some units with spare capacity and one or more units that “choke” the flow (e.g., a compressor, column, dehydration train, flare, or pipeline segment). These limiting points are the bottlenecks.
Debottlenecking systematically identifies those constraints, then addresses them through operating changes, equipment upgrades, reroutes, or adding parallel capacity, to unlock that latent margin.

Review actual operating data vs. design (flows, pressures, temperatures, ΔP, equipment curves) to see where the system first hits a limit as throughput increases.
Confirm whether the constraint is physical (undersized line, compressor HP, tray/packing capacity), control/logic, fouling (HXs, columns, filters), or a safety/relief/flare limit.
Develop options: adjust setpoints, re-balance flows, re-nozzle or re-rate equipment, add or relocate compression, add a parallel train, or upgrade flare/relief and utilities.
Implement the lowest‑cost, lowest‑risk changes that deliver the required incremental capacity, often staged over several small projects (“opportunity packs”).

Gas plants: adding or upgrading compression, reconfiguring refrigeration or NGL recovery trains, improving dehydration or acid gas handling so more inlet gas can be processed.
Refineries: relieving constraints in crude distillation units, heat exchangers, desalters, fin-fans, and transfer lines to increase barrels per day without a grassroots expansion.
Integrated upstream/midstream: upgrading or adding equipment (e.g., new trains, flare upgrades, tie‑ins to mothballed units) to raise gas or liquids handling capacity and support higher field production.

Debottlenecking increases production and utilization of existing assets, often delivering 10–30%+ capacity uplift at a fraction of the cost and schedule of newbuild facilities.
It can also improve operating efficiency (energy per unit throughput), reduce downtime and fouling, and enhance the facility’s economic performance over the asset life.