Piñon Midstream expands its sour gas treating and carbon capture facility

The Dark Horse Facility provides a state-of-the-art, purpose-built, sour natural gas treating and carbon capture solution for oil and natural gas producers operating in the Delaware Basin, US. The facility reduces the environmental impact of oil and natural gas operations in the region through the capture and permanent sequestration of both carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), with over 100 000 t of CO₂ and H₂S sequestered to date. The current facility and associated infrastructure include two 400 GPM amine treating units, two 18 000 ft deep AGI wells, approximately 50 000 horsepower of fully NACE-compliant compression, and approximately 35 miles of high-pressure gathering and redelivery pipelines.

Piñon placed its second AGI well, Independence AGI #2, into service in April 2023. The addition of this second AGI well allows for an increased treated AGI capacity of up to 20 million ft³/d, which is sufficient to accommodate up to 500 million ft³/d of treating capacity at the Dark Horse Facility. Additionally, this well ensures full operational redundancy, ensuring high runtimes while minimising flaring. The AGI injection capacity of Piñon's sour natural gas treating system in New Mexico is the largest of any permitted, active system in the state.

Piñon is increasing the sour gas treating capacity of its Dark Horse Facility by approximately 50%, to approximately 270 million ft/d, with the addition of Train III. Construction of Train III is expected to begin in 3Q23, with a planned in-service date of January 2024. Additionally, Piñon has initiated engineering work for Train IV.

Piñon currently operates four fully NACE-compliant compressor stations with approximately 200 million ft^/3/d of total compression capacity. Additionally, two compressor stations will be placed into service in 2024, bringing Piñon’s total compression capacity to approximately 350 million ft³/d.

Piñon’s gathering and treating system includes the Grande sweet gas redelivery pipeline, consisting of 22 miles of high-pressure, 20 in., steel pipe connecting the Dark Horse Facility with four existing major regional processors. Piñon is actively evaluating other interconnects with third-party processors to add additional flow assurance and customer flexibility.

Additionally, Piñon now provides tailored solutions that enable customers to source sweet natural gas directly from the Grande pipeline system. This solution gives customers a cost-effective and reliable method to optimise their gas lift operations.