Midstream · Gathering
Gathering
Before the 1,070 km pipeline come tens of kilometres of small lines that fetch crude at each wellpad and bring it to the processing facility. That is gathering: the least visible link in the chain, and the one where availability and losses are decided.
What a gathering network is
Each wellpad is linked by a flowline — a small-diameter pipe, often buried, sometimes heated or insulated on heavy crudes — to a manifold where several wells converge. Manifolds feed the central processing facility (CPF), where primary treatment begins. The network is drawn as a star or a fishbone depending on the field’s geography; its total length quickly exceeds tens of kilometres.
The points that matter
- Test separator — each well is measured separately, in turn: that is how you know what each well produces, and spot the one that declines.
- Inlet metering — the flow entering the CPF, reconciled with the sum of the wells: the gap is the loss, or the leak.
- Heating and insulation — on heavy crude a cold flowline plugs; heat at source or insulate the pipe.
- Pigs — sent through the lines to clean, measure wall thickness, detect corrosion.
- Leak detection — mass balances and pressure sensors; a flowline leaking into farmland is gathering’s number-one HSE risk.
In Chad: gathering as the first job
On the marginal blocks and mature fields we target, the existing gathering is often ageing or absent. Taking over a field means first taking over its lines: inspecting them, replacing what must be, putting metering back on its feet. It is also where integration pays: anti-corrosion chemistry from our chemicals pole, pigs and inspection drones from our integrity services, metrology from our metering expertise.
What we put in place
Instrumented pigging, line mapping, replacement plan prioritised by risk.
Test separator and certified inlet meters; the daily mass balance as routine.
Insulation, heat tracing or heating at source, per field.
Pressure, temperature and flow to SCADA; leak alert before it is visible.
Benchmarks
| Item | Order of magnitude | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Flowline diameter | 4 to 8 inches | rate, viscosity |
| Network length per field | 20 to 100 km | pad count, geography |
| Well test frequency | monthly or more | decline, water cut |
| Tolerated mass-balance gap | a few tenths of a % | metering quality |
Industry orders of magnitude for onshore.
Read next
Continue in Transport & Storage
Integrity, five disciplines day in, day out
Moving the flow is one thing; guaranteeing it moves through healthy facilities is another. Five disciplines take care of that, day after day.
Inspect
Regulatory checks, visual and instrumented inspection of tanks, lines and pumps: every piece of equipment has its file and its schedule — nothing ages unseen.
Watch the corrosion
Witness coupons, thickness measurements, inhibitor injection: corrosion never stops, and neither does its monitoring.
Maintain before the breakdown
Planned preventive maintenance on the critical components — valves, pumps, instrumentation: the scheduled maintenance hour always costs less than the unplanned shutdown.
Prepare for the worst
Spill drills, tested emergency plans, first-response kits in position: the black scenario is rehearsed dry, regularly.
Count right
Metrology at the interface meters: reconciled material balances, investigated discrepancies — integrity also means the integrity of the numbers.
Tell us who you are, and we will show you where to come in.
The Transport & Storage does not sell a product: it sells the certainty that the barrel leaves, arrives and gets counted. Filter our services by your profile and your need — or browse all six.
6 services shown
Contract crude trucking
Making the barrel roll before the pipe: specialised tanker trucks, monitored routes, witnessed metering at departure and arrival.
- Lifting at the field & escorted convoying
- GPS tracking and a digital logbook
- A material balance handed over at every rotation
Depot capacity & hand-over
Space in our depots, not just cubic metres: receipt, custody, rotation and hand-back under a witnessed balance.
- Crude & refined product storage
- First-in, first-out rotation
- Measured hand-back, investigated discrepancies
Integrity for third parties
Our five disciplines at the service of your facilities: instrumented inspection, corrosion monitoring, emergency preparedness.
- Regulatory inspection campaigns
- Witness coupons & inhibitors
- Emergency plans tested with your teams
Metrology & metering
Integrity also means the integrity of the numbers: meter calibration, reconciled material balances, documented discrepancies — auditable by your own controllers.
- Witnessed metering at the interfaces
- A published monthly reconciliation
- Assistance with volume audits
Distributed strategic reserve
The tool through which the public authority sees, measures and secures what circulates: distributed stocks, traceability, auditable balances.
- Depots spread out, no single point of failure
- Real-time visibility of volumes
- A State–operator contractual framework
Delivery as close as it gets
The barrel delivered where your business needs it: downstream transport, mobile stations, on-site offloading — no region is the end of the world.
- Delivery to industrial or farm sites
- Mobile stations for areas without concrete
- Recurring or on-demand scheduling
(target offers · company in formation — each scope is contracted at commercial opening)
The promise, in numbers we can keep
Our operating commitments — dated targets, not slogans.
A logistics operator is judged on four numbers. Here are the ones we will accept to be judged on, published and reconciled — from the very first rotation.
(operating targets · commissioning objectives, not recorded results)
To go further