St. Paul, Minnesota. March 19, 2014. Range Resources, a leading US independent oil and natural gas producer, uses engenity’s SoliStat along with heat trace cable to prevent freezing on their vapor recovery units (VRUs). The VRUs are located on storage tanks in remote oil fields where only DC power is available.
Storage tanks are used in oil fields to temporarily hold crude oil until it is transported. While the oil is in the tanks, gases vaporize and collect in the space between the oil and the top of the tank. Unless there is a recovery system in place, these vapors are often emitted into the atmosphere as the oil level fluctuates in the tank. Installing VRUs on the storage tanks is a very effective way to prevent the vapors from being vented into the atmosphere. Range Resources uses VRUs on their storage tanks, and just like many others in the oil industry, Range Resources experienced freezing of the VRU lines during the colder months.
To remedy the freezing, Range Resources wrapped heat trace cable around the lines and selected engenity’s SoliStat to switch the heat trace cable on and off when necessary. SoliStat offers customized temperature set-points, which can range from −40°F to +257°F. Travis Kirby, Facilities Engineer at Range Resources, was impressed with the ease of installation and highlighted the use of SoliStat in their remote locations: “The only thing we have available to us is DC power. Our main site ran off 24V and then the application of our VRUs ran off 12V, so since this was a DC heat trace system, we could integrate it with our current set up.”
SoliStat’s long-term reliability and consistency is a key feature for Range Resources’ remote application as well. Travis Kirby notes that, “SoliStat met our needs when it came down to monitoring our power, making sure we don’t overdo what we need to make the system work.” SoliStat is a hands-free application once installation is complete, which makes it ideal for Range Resources oil fields.
Learn more about SoliStat here.
Range Resources is a leading independent oil and natural gas producer with operations focused in Appalachia and the southwest region of the United States. The company pursues an organic growth strategy targeting high return, low-cost projects within its large inventory of low-risk, development drilling opportunities. Range Resources is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.
engenity, LLC is a group of designers and engineers with extensive experience in the development of consumer, medical, and industrial products who are dedicated to the design and development of application-specific electronic and electro-mechanical subsystems. engenity's current mission is to develop products based on current market needs.
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