Method to improve liquid yield from hydrocarbon production separators

1 . A method of regulating at least one parameter of a separator for use in a hydrocarbon production facility, the method comprising:

receiving at least one first temperature value and/or at least one first pressure value from at least one upstream component;

determining a target value for each of the at least one parameter for the separator based on the received at least one first temperature value and/or the at least one first pressure value, wherein determining the at least one target value is based on a multi-variate regression model, wherein the multi-variate regression model comprises:

exploring a parameter space with a gridded search, wherein the parameter space is defined by maximum values and minimum values of the received at least one first temperature value and/or the at least one first pressure value of the at least one upstream component and possible maximum and minimum values of the target value for the at least one parameter of the separator, and

solving the multi-variate regression model for all possible combinations of parameters of the parameter space; and

wherein the determining the at least one target parameter value comprises:

using a response surface model analysis by expressing liquid yield of either the separator or the hydrocarbon production facility as a mathematical function of the temperature and/or pressure values of the separator, the temperature and/or pressure values of the at least one upstream component, and the temperature and/or pressure values of at least one downstream component, if any; and

regulating the at least one parameter of the separator based on the respective target value.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one parameter is a pressure of the separator and/or the temperature of the separator.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving at least one second temperature value and/or at least one second pressure value from at least one downstream component; and

wherein the determining the target value is also based on the received at least one second temperature value and/or the at least one second pressure value from the at least one downstream component.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the separator is for use in a multi-stage separator chain and wherein the at least one upstream component is an upstream separator of a separator stage, which is upstream of the separator.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

providing a temperature value and/or a pressure value of the separator to at least one downstream component.

6 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein the at least one downstream component is a downstream separator of a separator stage, which is downstream of the separator.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the parameter space is also defined by maximum values and minimum values of at least one second temperature value and/or at least one second pressure value of at least one downstream component.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising checking effect of the at least one target value by:

inserting the at least one target value into the multi-variate regression model; and

comparing regulated conditions using the at least one target value, with unregulated conditions.