Gas compressor cleaning

A method of cleaning deposited solid material from a fouled portion of a gas compressor whilst the gas compressor is in situ in a natural gas processing system, the method comprising:

• supplying a liquid cleaning agent to a gas inlet of the gas compressor, the liquid cleaning agent being capable of removing the deposited solid material;
• passing the liquid cleaning agent through the gas compressor to a gas outlet of the gas compressor in order to remove deposited solid material from the gas compressor, wherein at least a portion of the cleaning agent remains in a liquid state as it passes through the fouled portion of the gas compressor;
• and
• recovering a fluid containing the removed material that is output from the gas compressor so as to prevent the removed deposited solid material reaching one or more gas processing stages of the natural gas processing system downstream of the gas compressor,
• wherein recovering the fluid output from the gas compressor comprises supplying the fluid output from the gas outlet of the gas compressor to a separator that outputs a gas phase output and a liquid phase output, the liquid phase output comprising the removed deposited solid material output from the gas compressor, and
• wherein the separator is upstream of the gas compressor and wherein the fluid output from the gas compressor is passed to the separator by opening an anti-surge valve such that substantially all fluid output from the gas compressor is returned via an anti-surge line to the separator.