Patent ID: 8726982

Claim:
A method of producing gaseous and liquid components from one or more multi-phase streams in one or more pipelines comprising the steps of: (a) passing a first multi-phase stream along a first pipeline; (b) passing the first multi-phase stream through a first slugcatcher system to provide a first gaseous component stream and at least one first liquid component stream; (c) selectively opening a first branch pipeline from the first pipeline upstream of the first slugcatcher system to pass at least a fraction of the first multi-phase stream through the first branch pipeline to provide a first branch multi-phase stream; and (d) passing at least a fraction of the first branch multi-phase stream to a first gas/liquid separator to provide an overhead gaseous stream and a bottom liquid stream; wherein at least a first pig is passed down at least the first pipeline to create at least one pig-slug mass, and at least the first branch pipeline is selectively opened when the at least first pig is downstream of at least the first branch pipeline.