CALGARY, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lexington Energy Services Inc. is pleased to announce the prototype of its nitrogen generation system has arrived at its Calgary facility.
"It's a little hard to believe myself," says Lexington Energy COO Brent Nimeck, who designed the system, "but I think it's actually working better than I expected. No one has to take my word for it though - we're going to be running demonstrations over the next week."
Lexington Energy's portable nitrogen system can be easily transported to a site, generating a continuous supply of nitrogen on location without any of the additional costs or hazards associated with conventional liquid nitrogen systems. What's more, Lexington Energy's design can easily be adapted for a variety of offshore applications.
"Our system doesn't reinvent nitrogen generation," says Mr. Nimeck, "it simply gives our customers the best product specifically tailored to their unique needs. This is nitrogen, the next generation and it's here today."
Lexington Energy's new system extracts nitrogen from the air and purifies it to 98-99.5 per cent. Unlike some other designs that max out at 95 per cent, Lexington Energy's system takes the next step and processes twice the volume of air to reach the critical minimum of 98 per cent pure nitrogen needed for many applications.
One of the oil industry's main uses for nitrogen is "sour" oil and gas. Alberta is home to almost 80 per cent of Canada's vast natural gas reserves and fully one-third of it is "sour" - it contains hydrogen sulfide. The gas present in crude oil can also be sour.
Nitrogen is used to displace oxygen in sour oil or gas wells to prevent corrosion of the well bore and other down-hole equipment, greatly extending the life of oil field equipment. Removing the oxygen from these environments also eliminates the risk of causing a subsurface well-bore fire or surface explosion.
The problem, however, is that for many applications the conventional liquid nitrogen system is simply inefficient. It requires trucking thousands of gallons of liquid nitrogen from the point of production to a transfer station and then securing access to a field-pumping unit, which then has to travel to the actual location in the field where the nitrogen is required.
These problems are repeated on an even greater scale offshore. There, nitrogen is required for the same applications, but there is a greater disadvantage in the supply chain to and from the platforms and rigs. Vast distances, bad weather, and even line-ups at filling stations are only some of the potential causes of interruptions in offshore nitrogen supply. Even worse, in most remote parts of the world, liquid nitrogen simply is not available.
"On site generation is the only way to guarantee customers an uninterrupted supply of nitrogen on location," Mr. Nimeck said. "And with our system's simplicity, safety, and cost-effectiveness, there is no shortage of applications."
Ships unloading at terminal require purging with nitrogen before reloading, as do train cars hauling hazardous fluids or gas. Capping food and grain shipments with nitrogen to help decrease oxidization or rotting is also common.
Based in Calgary, Lexington Energy Services Inc. is a publicly-traded company manufacturing innovatively designed service equipment for the rapidly expanding oil and gas industry.
CONTACT: Mark Procknow, Corporate Communications, Lexington Energy Services Inc., Calgary, AB, (403) 279-4585
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