KKI’s client had originally purchased a competitor’s choke valve for a gas storage facility in Australia. The competitor’s valve was severely underperforming in terms of control and there was excessive noise generation through the valve.

In 2016 KKI received an order to provide a solution that would eliminate all the previous issues that were experienced with the competitor’s valve. As part of the contract, a KKI Service Engineer visited a local testing facility in Australia to conduct 3 x seat leakage tests in both flow directions. This was to ensure that the Bi-Directional seals performed to the project requirements of ANSI/FCI 70-2 Class V. The KKI Service Engineer then went to the customer site to assist with the installation of the choke valve onto the Wellhead Surface Christmas Tree. The KKI solution fully addressed the control performance and eliminated the previous noise issue. The client was extremely happy with the overall performance of KKI and the new valve solution.

After 5 years in operation the client’s comment is. “This choke valve has been great no issues evident. A snapshot from October 2021 till now (March 2022):

• Injection operation has been 101 times
• Withdrawal operation has been 48 times”

Choke Trim Feature

The choke featured a bi-directional trim in full Tungsten Carbide with special sealing arrangement. This provided a tight seat shutoff in both flow directions.

Previous Experience

KKI has supplied over 800 valves, dating back as far as 1985, for applications that inject gas back into the wells. These applications are a mixture of both surface and subsea solutions.

What This Means for KOSO Kent Introl

“As the drive to implement CCUS & Gas Storage projects gathers pace globally KKI reflects on a Bi-Directional valve solution for a Gas Storage project with over 5 years + of exceptional performance.”
- Stuart Billingham, Sales Director.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Kent Introl