PROCESS FOR REGASIFYING A GAS HYDRATE SLURRY

A continuous process for regasifying a feed stream comprising (i) a slurry phase comprising gas hydrate particles suspended in a produced liquid hydrocarbon and optionally free produced water and (ii) optionally a gaseous phase comprising free produced gaseous hydrocarbon thereby generating a regasified multiphase fluid and for separating the regasified multiphase fluid into its component fluids, comprising the steps of: (a) heating the feed stream to above the dissociation temperature of the gas hydrate thereby regasifying the feed stream by converting the gas hydrate particles into gaseous hydrocarbon and water; (b) separating a gaseous hydrocarbon phase from the regasified multiphase fluid thereby forming a gaseous hydrocarbon product stream and a liquid stream comprising a mixture of liquid hydrocarbon and water; (c) separating the liquid stream comprising a mixture of the liquid hydrocarbon and water into a liquid hydrocarbon phase and an aqueous phase; and (d) removing the liquid hydrocarbon phase as a liquid hydrocarbon product stream.