Hydrates, Wax, Asphaltene Management

Chemical Injection System

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Flow Assurance Issues
Emulsion / Foam
Wax / Asphaltene
Scale
Corrosion
Gas Hydrates
Liquid Slugging
Optimize Deliverability
Sand / Erosion
4
Gas Hydrates
Ice-like crystals that form with
natural gas and water
Occurs at combination of certain
low temperatures and high
pressures
Typical causes
Subsea low temperatures
Cooling from gas expansion
Poor dehydration in gas lift and gas export
lines
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Gas Hydrate Properties
Approx 170 ft3 gas is stored in 1
ft3 of hydrate
Plugs can form with black oil due
to associated gas
Pigging is NOT recommended;
pigging causes crystals to pack
and form solid blockage
Melting plug with large
differential pressure can create
projectile hazard
Burning Hydrate
(Ref: D. Sloan, Clathrate Hydrates)
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Thermal Design Approach
Understand requirements
Implement as part of system design
Selection insulation material
Cold spot management plan
Final design based on analysis (FEA & CFD)
Full scale cool down test (if required)
0
500
0 60
Temperature, deg C
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
,

b
a
r
s
Hydrates
No Hydrates
Flowing
Conditions
Shut Down
Conditions
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Thermal Management for Flowlines and
Risers
3 feet
No Insulation Bury 3 feet
External Coating
Pipe-in-Pipe
- Phase Change Material (Option)
External Coating
Insulated / Heated Flexibles
Heated Flowlines
- Electric
- Bundle
- Pipe-in-Pipe w/ flow in annulus
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30-Mile Subsea Tieback Example
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Distance from Wellhead, miles
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

d
e
g

F
Single Pipe-in-Pipe
Single (8-5/8" OD) and Dual (6-5/8" OD) Bare Pipe
Dual Pipe-in-Pipe
ASSUMPTIONS
20,000 BFPD
Water Cut = 0%
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Flowline Cool Down
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time After Shut Down, hours
F
l
o
w
l
i
n
e

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

d
e
g

F
Pipe-in-Pipe
Externally Coated Line
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Hydrates Evaluation
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
0 50 100 150 200 250
Temperature, deg F
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
,

p
s
i
Hydrate Curve
Uninsulated
Bury 3 ft
2" ext. coat
Pipe-in-Pipe
Shut-In Conditions
Shut-In Conditions
At Wellhead
Flowing Temp
Profiles
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Thermal Management
Field-proven materials:
NovoTherm 250 F max, k = 0.13 Btu/hr-ft-F
NovoLastic HT 350 F max, k=0.1 Btu/hr-ft-F
Advanced Thermal Analysis
3D Conduction models
Computational Fluid Dynamics
Cold Spot management system for connectors
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Flowline and Riser Cool Down Analysis
-2200
-2000
-1800
-1600
-1400
-1200
-1000
-800
-600
-400
-200
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Horizontal Distance (m)
T
V
D

(
m
)
Boarding
Valve
End of Riser
Flowline -> Jumper -> Tree
Tree
Well bore
Steady state Flow
Closure of boarding valve
over a duration of 30
seconds
Line packing over a duration
of 5 minutes
Closure of subsea valve over
a duration of 30 seconds
Riser and flowline cooldown
over a duration of 10 hours
Open of boarding valve by
30%, over a duration of 30
seconds
Evaluate drop in flowline
pressure and liquid flow to
topsides
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Hydrate Formation Chart
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Timeline for Cool down
Activities
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Flowline Warm-up
It will take longer to warm up the flow line due to warming the soil
The thermal mass of the soil will give a longer cooldown time during shutdowns
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time after well restart, hours
R
i
s
e
r

B
a
s
e

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

o
F
0
50
100
150
200
250
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

M
e
t
h
a
n
o
l

V
o
l
u
m
e
,


b
b
l
Riser Base Temperature, F
Cumulative Methanol Volume, bbl
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Hydrate Inhibitors
Oil and
Condensates
Gas and Oil Methanol: Oil
MEG: Gas
condensates
Applicable
Effective for
water cut< 50%
Low allowable
sub-cooling
High volume
demands, and
effect on refinery
Disadvantage
Dosage
independent of
T
Dosage
independent of
water-cut
Proved and
widely applied
Advantage
Allow hydrate to
form but control
particle size
Delay hydrate
formation and
inhibit hydrate
crystal growth
Lower the
hydrate formation
temperature
Mechanism
Anti- agglomerants
(AA)
Kinetic Hydrate
Inhibitors
(KHI)
Thermodynamic
Inhibitors
(Methanol / MEG)
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Lift Gas Stream
Gas dehydration quality is critical to avoid water vapor in the
lift gas stream
Poorly dehydrated gas could cause hydrates in lift gas stream
Pressure drop through the gas lift choke can result in hydrate
formation
Improper chemicals mixing with dehydrated gas can
potentially cause chemicals to turn to a gunk that plugs
subsea equipment.
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Case Study: Long Distance Subsea Tieback
40 miles, 6000 ft Water Depth
Hydrates and Wax Management is challenging
Electrically heated, single pipe-in-pipe flowline
T
O

S
P
A
R
Well #2
SUTA
EFL HFL
Well #1
IUTA
EFL HFL
M
SUTA
S/D transformer
Wet Mate
11 kv Electric
Power Umbilical
HTEM/HCM
HIPPS
Mid-line Connectors
E-H PRODUCTION UMBILICAL
8" - in - 12" Pipe-in-Pipe (~36 miles)

11 kv 11 kv 11 kv
IUTA
Dry Mate
Typical Bulkhead
INFIELD E-H UMBILICAL
8" - in - 12"
Pipe-in-Pipe
(3.7 miles)
SLED TYPE C SLED TYPE B
M
ISUTA
SLED TYPE A
IUTA IUTA IUTA
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SCSSV Setting Depth Based on Formation
Water Salinity
SCSSV Setting Recommended: 1,100 ft
and below mudline
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Hydrate Plug Remediation
Once a hydrate plug
forms it is very
difficult to get rid of
it
Requires a lot of time
Tahoe - 2 weeks
Arco North Sea a
month or more
The principle
technique is to use
depressurization to
destabilize the
hydrates. With a
large enough drop in
pressure the hydrate
will melt
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Wax (paraffin)
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Blockages in Subsea Production System-
Wax
Wax is a hydrocarbon string, namely
CnH2n+2 where n>20
Wax can deposit at very high-
temperatures > 100 F
Typical Causes:
High wax concentration and high wax
appearance temperature.
Wall-fluid temperature difference
Wax crystallization due to no-flow in
dead leg sections
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Wax Deposition
Flowline deposition is non-uniform along length of flowline
Deposition rate is typically slow and rate depends on temperature
Wax ages over time (becomes harder)
To prevent wax from depositing
Keep FWHT (flowing wellhead temperature) above cloud point
Manage Wax Deposition in Flowline
Pigging ( requiring dual flowlines or subsea launcher )
Insulation effective for high flow rates and low cloud points (entire system:
tubing, tree, jumpers, manifolds, & flowlines)
Chemicals help (as much as 5x decrease in deposition rate) but do not
eliminate deposition
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Asphaltenes
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Asphaltenes & Resins
Asphaltene particles are stabilized by
resins at reservoir conditions.
Under certain conditions, the resins
coating the asphaltene particles
disconnect, and particles stick to each
other & surroundings. Inhibitors act like
resins and will stand in for them;
stabilizing asphaltene particles which lost
some of their natural resins.
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Generic Asphaltene Precipitation
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Removing Asphaltene Deposits
Remediation Wellbore
Primary Strategy inject solvent (xylene) soaks through umbilical, bullhead to
formation, and then flow back the well
Option inject xylene/dispersant while flowing for a partial remediation.
Remediation Flowline
Primary inject xylene/dispersant downhole or at tree through umbilical while flowing
for partial remediation
Option displace xylene through umbilical into flowline, let sit for static soak, and
then flow well to surface to flush out xylene
Option non-rig intervention to pump xylene through flowline with drill pipe to the
tree
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Pigging Philosophy
Progressive Pigging
Trade off between minimum risk to flow assurance and minimum
risk to subsea flexible flowlines and risers
Pig Types
Begin with least aggressive pig type, I.e. foam pigs and increase aggressiveness
with polyurethane scraper pigs
Frequency
Once or twice a week initially; reduce frequency based on pig returns, production
history and experience
Avoid pigging on the fly
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Chemical Injection
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Chemical Injection System Design
Proper selection of chemicals for treatment and remediation
Sufficient topside storage
Facilities to inject chemicals at the tree, upstream of well jumper,
PLET/manifold
Subsea dosing valves