Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The objective of compendium is to give an introduction to system design, from a flow assurance point of
view, for the development of subsea oil and gas fields. The main phases of the design process are
presented. Main Flow Assurance related subjects of interest are presented in brief.
1 Table of Contents
2
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4
3.2
3.2.1
3.2.2
3.2.3
3.2.4
Operation.................................................................................................................. 8
3.2.5
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.4.1
6.4.2
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.4.1
7.4.2
7.4.3
7.5
7.5.1
7.5.2
7.5.3
7.5.4
Cool down of fluid filled pipe after shut-down (to be finished) ............................. 38
1
Flow regimes........................................................................................................... 40
8.2
Slugging................................................................................................................... 43
Hydrates .............................................................................................................................................. 45
9.1
9.1.1
9.1.2
10
10.1
General definition................................................................................................... 55
10.2
Fatigue .................................................................................................................... 55
10.3
10.3.1
10.3.2
10.3.3
10.4
11
Wax ......................................................................................................................... 61
12
Erosion .................................................................................................................... 64
12.1
Causes of erosion.................................................................................................... 64
12.1.1
12.1.2
Cavitation................................................................................................................ 65
12.1.3
Erosion corrosion.................................................................................................... 65
12.1.4
13
14
14.1
14.2
Floater/Subsea........................................................................................................ 74
15
15.1
15.2
Tordis ...................................................................................................................... 79
15.3
15.4
Marlim .................................................................................................................... 83
16
Vocabulary .............................................................................................................. 85
2
17
Literature ................................................................................................................ 88
18
Attachments ........................................................................................................... 89
18.1
2 Introduction
Flow assurance is a relatively new term in oil and gas industry. It refers to ensuring successful and
economical flow of hydrocarbon stream from reservoir to the point of sale. The primary goal of flow
assurance is to ensure production of hydrocarbons in a safe and reliable way and ensure operability
through the entire life of field.
Flow Assurance developed because of subsea development including shorter and longer flowlines
transporting of unprocessed multiphase flow.
The term Flow Assurance was first used by Petrobras in the early 1990s in Portuguese as Garantia do
Escoamento (pt::Garantia do Escoamento), meaning literally Guarantee of Flow, or Flow Assurance.
In order to guaranty feasible, safe and cost effective production for subsea oil and gas field Flow
Assurance needs to covers a number of special engineering fields and is an extremely diverse subject
matter.
In the system design for a subsea oil and gas development Flow Assurance take critical part in all phases
of the project. Flow assurance challenges increase with sea depth, tie-back distances, harsh
environment as well as more complex reservoir fluids.
The various phases of a subsea oil and gas development are presented herein. Some of the major Flow
Assurance focus points are presented and dwelled briefly into.
3 Subsea Fields
Subsea fields are characterized by a large network of wells, flowlines and manifolds.
Subsea oil and gas field developments are usually split into Shallow water and Deepwater categories to
distinguish between the different facilities and approaches that are needed.
The term shallow water or shelf is used for shallow water depths where bottom-founded facilities like
jackup drilling rigs and fixed offshore structures can be used, and where saturation diving is feasible.
Deepwater is a term often used to refer to offshore projects located in water depths greater than
around 600 feet (200 m sea water depth), where floating drilling vessels and floating oil platforms are
used, and unmanned underwater vehicles are required as manned diving is not practical.
Shell completed its first subsea well in the Gulf of Mexico in 1961.
Subsea production systems can range in complexity from a single satellite well with a flowline linked to a
fixed platform, Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit or an onshore installation, to
complex subsea process stations and several wells on a template or clustered around a manifold, and
transferring to a fixed or floating facility, or directly to an onshore installation.
The development of subsea oil and gas fields requires specialized equipment. The equipment must be
reliable enough to safe guard the environment, and make the exploitation of the subsea hydrocarbons
economically feasible. The deployment of such equipment requires specialized and expensive vessels,
which need to be equipped with diving equipment for relatively shallow equipment work (i.e. a few
hundred meter water depth maximum), and robotic equipment for deeper water depths. Any
requirement to repair or intervene with installed subsea equipment is thus normally very expensive.
Subsea technology in offshore oil and gas production is a highly specialized field of application with
particular demands on engineering, simulation and flow assurance knowledge. Most of the new oil and
gas fields are located in deepwater and are generally referred to as deepwater systems. Development of
these fields sets strict requirements for verification of the various systems functions and their
compliance with current requirements and specifications, which is why flow assurance has a high focus
in these types of development.
Figure 1: Example subsea field system characterized by a large network of wells, flowlines and
manifolds.
The main motivation for the development of an oil/gas field is in general to maximized
production of oil or gas from reservoir to receiving facilities.
The main parameters from a flow assurance perspective are the reservoir fluid properties,
pressure and temperature.
5
Main parameters for selection of system solution are technical feasibility, safety, reliability and
cost.
Main focus areas dealt with are hydrates, wax, erosion, flow induced vibrations and water
hammer.
The flow assurance specialist must be able to design multiphase systems to ensure the safe,
uninterrupted transport of reservoir fluids to the processing facilities.
Keywords for subsea design are robustness, simplicity and efficiency. The equipment needs to
operate for decades with a minimum of down time or required maintenance.
long tie-ins
Concept
Evaluation
s
FEED
Detailed
Engineering
Operatio
n
Tail end
production
Flow induced vibration screening; Energy Institute guideline and/or detailed structural
analysis
Sand erosion screening tools; DNV-RP-O501 or Tulsa and CFD sand erosion simulations
Thermal design tools: thermal finite element analysis (FEA) and thermal CFD simulations
3.2.4 Operation
During operation of the field the flow assurance engineer is involved in online monitoring of the system.
Provide advice on flow assurance, operating procedures, surveillance, production optimization and debottlenecking for fields in operation.
Figure 3: Field schematic showing flow assurance challenges that need to be addressed in a subsea
multiphase production system
Table 1: Includes an overview of the main flow assurance issues and the tasks and analysis to be
performed for any system
Potential issues
Hydrate formation
Wax deposits
Multiphase flow
Branching
Branching
Fluid properties
10
Potential issues
Sand production
Thermal requirement
Multiphase simulations
Conceptual screening
Bottlenecking of pressure drop
Flow regime
investigation
Terrain slugging in
flowline
11
Potential issues
Dynamic simulations
Operational Philosophy
Analysis to be performed
Chemical injection
points and PDT
instrumentation
General requirements
Emulsion
Corrosion
Material selection
Asphaltenes
Monitoring
12
5 Fluid properties
When an oil and/or gas field is discovered several exploration and appraisal wells are drilled to
characterize the reservoir. Several samples of the reservoir fluid are taken. These are tested in labs and
characterized and form the basis for determining the fluid properties for the field.
Fluid compositions are entered into a PVT equation of state software such as PVTsim or MultiFlash and
tuned against fluid properties at reservoir conditions. Once the fluid has been properly characterized
and tuned PVT simulations may determine the fluid properties for all operational conditions and is the
main input tool providing input data to:
14
6 Pipe flow
6.1 Derivation of conservation of momentum for single phase flow in pipe
This section derives the momentum equation for single phase flow in an inclined pipe. The equation is
derived for the control volume (CV) shown in Figure 49.
Vertical
elevation
1
Flow
CV
mg sin(
)
D
mg
Equation 1
Here
Parameter
Explanation
15
Parameter
Explanation
The rate of momentum change on the left hand side of Equation 2 for the control volume may be
defined as
. =
Equation 2
Here
Parameter
Explanation
Gravitational force
Hence the total force on the right hand side of Equation 2 for the control volume is
16
= 1 2 + sin()
Equation 3
Here
Parameter
Explanation
1
= 2
4
Pressure at location 1
Pressure at location 2
Gravitational acceleration.
sin() =
The wall shear stress may be expressed introducing Darcy Weisbach friction factor :
17
1
= 2
8
Equation 4
1
1
1 2
1 2
= = 2 = 2
=
8
4
2
2
Here =
1
2
2
Equation 5
is the commonly used term for pressure drop due to friction in a pipe.
The sum of forces acting on the control volume may be summarized as:
= (1 2 +
1 2
)
2
Equation 6
1 2
=
(1 2 +
)
2
Equation 7
= 1 2 = +
1 2
2
Equation 8
The pressure drop is expressed as by two terms: a gravitational contribution and a frictional
contribution.
18
Laminar flow
Turbulent flow
< 2300
2300
(Haaland)
64
1.11
6.9 2
= [1.8 log10 ((
)
+
)]
3.7
Equation 9
Here
Parameter
Explanation
Wall roughness
Fluid density
Fluid velocity
Equation 9 utilizes commonly known correlations for friction factors for the laminar and turbulent flow
regimes, however the transition between laminar flow regime and turbulent flow regime is set at a
Reynolds number of 2300. Equation 9 does not properly address the transitional flow regimes observed
moving from laminar to turbulent flow. The implementation of the friction factors in Equation 9 is not
recommended as it is known to cause numerical instabilities due to the discontinuity in the friction
factor moving from laminar flow regime into the turbulent flow regime. In reality no such discontinuity
occurs; a smooth transition between laminar and turbulent flow regime is seen; see reference [5].
19
20
21
Higher velocities increase pressure drop. This is important to evaluate in line sizing.
In some fields the distance to shore from field is a governing parameter. Solutions as
separation of liquid and gas and boosting with pump and compressor are evaluations to
be done to see what is necessary to get a driving pressure in the system.
Velocity
o
In multiphase flow the fluid phases will vary in different parts of the system and in
different parts of production life according to temperature, pressure and rates. As can
be seen from Equation 2, density is one of the parameters that influence on pressure
drop, and in general more liquid give a higher pressure drop than very dry gas. This
means i.e. that when a well start to produce more water along with oil and/or gas, the
pressure drop will increase resulting in lower production rates and hence even lower
gas/and or oil rates.
Length of flowline
o
The weight of the height column of multiphase will be important in the vertical part of
the well, long flowlines and risers (see exercises)
There are contributions to pressure drop from every bend, valve and process module in
a system. Especially on a subsea station these impacts need to be calculated and
reduced to a minimum. In some cases a high consciousness of this can result in an
optimal design with regards to minimum pressure drop.
Gravity forces
o
For long flowlines the contribution from the friction between flow and fluid is the most
dominant parameter that causes pressure drop (see exercises).
Water is nearly incompressible and the impact from temperature on the actual flow is
low. This is not the case in gas, which is highly compressible. The actual flow will
increase with higher temperature and resulting in a higher velocity, which again impacts
on the pressure drop.
Density
o
The density in multiphase will be a function of the rates of the three phases, the
temperature and pressure.
22
Equation 10
2
2
Equation 11
Figure 8: Steady state pressure drop and hold-up versus production rate
23
As the valve closes the pressure upstream the valve increases to overcome the momentum of the liquid.
As the pressure increases the liquid gets compressed and the liquid density increases. Also the pressure
increase slightly enlarges the pipe.
Assume the pressure wave travels upstream with a velocity . Consider Figure 20 showing an unsteady
control volume centered on the pressure wave traveling upstream the pipe after the valve closure.
24
V+V
V+V+a
V+a
Figure 11: Steady flow control volume for water hammer analysis.
Let's detail the forces acting on the control volume in further details
25
Area: A+A
Area: A
Density: +
Density:
F3
F2
V+V+a
V+a
F1
Fn
(1)
Fs
L
(2)
Figure 12: Steady flow control volume for water hammer with all forces shown.
The wall shear force due to friction will be ignored. Also we only consider relatively strong pipe
materials such as steel the pipe bulge is very small and so 3 is neglected. We assume uniform flow
velocity and consider the linear momentum equation parallel to the pipe for the control volume in
Figure 22:
= Q(out in )
Equation 12
1 2 = [( + + ) ( + )] =
Equation 13
Here = ( + ). Assume the pressure at (1) is 0 then the pressure at (2) is 0 + . Then Equation
5 reads:
0 (0 + )( + ) = ( + )
Equation 14
The increase in pipe cross sectional area is very small and can be ignored so the pressure increase
can be simplified as
= ( + ) = (1 + )
26
Equation 15
In most rigid pipes the value of / is very small and the pressure increase due to a decrease in velocity
is
Equation 16
The pressure pulse wave speed is denoted the sonic speed or speed of sound in the fluid filled pipe.
The sonic speed is dependent on the fluid bulk modulus, elasticity of the pipe and the amount of
entrapped gas present in the liquid system.
Equation 16 is sometimes referred to as Joukowsky's equation and gives the maximum amplitude of the
pressure pulse due to an abrupt valve closure.
+
+ +
|| = 0
2
Equation 17
1
+
=0
Equation 18
The pressure may be described in terms of piezometric head via the relation = ( ).
(Remember = ().) Hence
1 1 [( )]
[( )]
=
=
=
Equation 19
+
+
|| = 0
Equation 20
+
=0
Equation 21
= +
Equation 22
So both equations involve non-linear terms. For the moment let us assume the linear terms in the
momentum and the conservation of mass equation are larger than the non-linear terms in addition to
the non-linear friction term. We may evaluate later the consequences of this simplification. The
simplified equations become
+
=0
Equation 23
and
2
+
=0
Equation 24
The equations are linear so cross-differentiation will low us to eliminate one of the unknowns
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
=
(
)
2
2
2
Equation 25
2
2
Equation 26
28
Equation 27
And
2
2
2
2 2
=
(
+
)
=
+
+
+
2
2 2
2 2
2
2
=
+
2
+
2
2
2
Equation 28
In a similar fashion
1 1
=
+
=
Equation 29
And
2
1 1
1 2
2
1 2 2
=
(
)
=
(
+
)
(
+
)
2
2
2
2 1 1 2 1 2
1 1 2
1 2
1 2
2
2
=
(
)
=
(
2
+
)
2 2
2
2 2
2
Equation 30
2
=0
Equation 31
= 0 + 1 () + 2 () = 0 + 1 ( + ) + 2 ( )
Equation 32
Consider 1 , if the time passes from 1 to 2 = 1 + the function 1 has the same value if
1 +
1
2
= 2 +
Equation 33
Or if
29
2 1
= (2 1 ) =
Equation 34
So as time advances the argument + remains constant if decreases with the same amount as the
time increases. So 1 is a leftward moving wave with an absolute velocity . In the same fashion it can
be argued that 2 is a rightward moving wave with absolute velocity . The general solution to Equation
18 is a superposition of left and right moving waves, moving at absolute velocity .
In deriving Equation 26 nonlinear terms in the conservation of momentum equation and the mass
conservation equation were ignored. These terms are
, and
Equation 35
Equation 36
For almost all cases 1 and the convective terms are negligible. Only in rare cases were the
flowing velocity is comparable to the sonic velocity is it important to include the non-linear
convective terms.
30
7 Heat transfer
7.1 Conductive heat transfer
When a temperature gradient exists in a body, energy is transferred from the high-temperature region
to the low-temperature region. The energy is transferred by conduction and the heat transfer rate per
unit area is proportional to the normal temperature gradient
q
~
Equation 37
Equation 38
Where, q is the heat-transfer rate and is the temperature gradient in the direction of the heat flow.
Equation 39
Here heat transfer is related to the overall temperature difference between the wall and fluid and the
surface area . The quantity is called the convection heat-transfer coefficient. Several empirical
correlations exists for determining the convection heat-transfer coefficient based on the flow field, the
fluid and the geometry of the system.
Equation 40
The proportionality constant = 5.669 108 W/(m2 K 4 ) is called the Stefan-Boltzmann constant.
31
The Stefan-Boltzmann law applies to black bodies and only governs radiation emitted from the body.
The net radiant exchange between two surfaces is
q = 4
Equation 41
For a plane wall the heat transfer across the wall can be expressed as
q=
(2 1 )
Equation 42
T1
T2
q
T1
T2
32
Equation 43
If more than one material is present as depicted in Figure 14 the heat flow may be written in
terms of the temperature difference over each of the layers
q=
(2 1 ) =
(3 2 ) =
(4 3 )
Equation 44
1 4
1 4
=
+ +
+
+
Equation 45
layers layer
Equation 46
T1
T2
T3
RA
T4
T1
T2
RB
RC
T3
T4
33
q = kA
dT
dT
= 2
dr
dr
Equation 47
2
( )
( )
Equation 48
r0
ri
r
q
R
Ti
To
2
2
2
(
)
(
)
=
1
2
2
3
(3 4 )
(2 )
(3 )
(4 )
1
2
3
34
Equation 49
(1 4 )
2(1 4 )
=
+ + (2 ) (3 ) (4 )
1
2
3
+
+
T2
r2
Equation 50
T3
r3
T1
r4
r1
T4
B
C
1
(1 )
1
35
Equation 51
The last expression to the right in the above equation expresses the thermal resistance due to
convection.
TA
Fluid B
Fluid A
T1
q
T2
q
TA
TB
T1
1
1
T2
1
2
TB
R overall =
1
+
+
1 2
Equation 52
= Toverall =
Toverall
R overall
Equation 53
Hence
Equation 54
R overall
36
( + )
( )
dx
Figure 18: Steady state flow in pipe section with heat loss to ambient
Consider the pipe section depicted above. Fluid is flowing at steady state through the pipe. The fluid
temperature changes over the length of the pipe as heat is either lost or gained from the ambient. The
heat balance for the heat section may be described by
(( + ) ()) = = = (() ambient )
Equation 55
Equation 56
Equation 57
Here
Parameter
()
ambient
Explanation
Temperature along the pipeline [C]
Ambient temperature outside pipe [C]
37
Parameter
Explanation
Equation 58
mix =
Equation 59
Equation 60
7.5.4 Cool down of fluid filled pipe after shut-down (to be finished)
In this section we develop a method for computing the cool down of fluid inside an insulated pipe. The
cool down of the fluid, pipe and insulation is related to the conservation of energy for each of the layers
(fluid, pipe and insulation).
Consider a general material. The temperature in the material is governed by:
material
= IN OUT
Equation 61
Here is the mass of the material, + the specific heat capacity of the layer, material the average
temperature of the material, IN is heat flow into the material and OUT the heat flow from the material.
38
Consider the multilayered pipe in Figure 19. In what follows we will assume the temperature in midlayer of a material to be equal to the average temperature in the material. In order to determine the
heat flow in and out of each material layer we need to determine the radial heat flux in the multilayered
pipe. We start by defining the thermal resistances between the mid-points of two consecutive layers.
T2
r2
T3
r3
T1
r4
r1
B
C
39
T4
8 Multiphase flow
Multiphase flow describes multi-component systems in which the interaction between the different
components has a major influence on the overall flow structure. In the oil and gas industry multiphase
flow is the combined flow of gas, condensate/oil and water in a pipe. There are very few cases in
multiphase flow in which the problem can be simplified and still retain the essential physics. Some
examples of how to simplify and derive at evaluations in multiphase problems are given in the exercises.
Numerical simulation models are therefore necessary tools for designing multiphase systems. There
exist several numerical simulation tools and models.
40
liquid droplet at the peaks of the waves and become entrained in the gas. These droplets are distributed
further down the pipe.
Slug flow is where large frothy waves of liquid form a slug that can fill the pipe completely. These slugs
may also be in the form of a surge wave that exists upon a thick film of liquid on the bottom of the pipe.
Elongated bubble flow consists of a mostly liquid flow with elongated bubbles present closer to the top
of the pipe.
Dispersed flow assumes a pipe is completely filled with liquid with a small amount of entrained gas. The
gas is in the form of smaller bubbles. These bubbles of gas have a tendency to reside in the top region of
the pipe as gravity holds the liquid in the bottom of the pipe.
41
Figure 22: Flow regime transition map for horizontal multiphase flow
From the flow regime transition map it can be seen that multiphase flow attends different flow regimes.
These flow regimes are dependent on the difference in rate and velocity between the phases. In the
figures above the multiphase flow is simplified to two phase flow, gas and liquid. Simulation models that
solve the full Navier-Stokes equations for three phase flow can indicate which flow regime is present at
any time in the pipe.
42
In the table above Flow Manager multiphase simulation model has simulated multiphase flow in 120
km long flow lines. FlowManager is a hydraulic steady state model that solves the Navier - Stokes
equations for multiphase flow. It is used as an online monitoring tool for well management in the North
Sea and outside Angola. It can also be used to simulate how a new system will behave. In the table
above the simulations have been used to predict flow regimes for different pipe sizes and different
rates. As can be seen the flow regime varies along the line with temperature and pressure. This is
because the temperature and pressure drop along the line and impacts on the equilibrium between the
phases and the amount of oil, water and natural gas change, which again impacts on the actual velocity
along the pipe and the flow regime. In the transition map this is illustrated by the operating point of the
fluid moving from stratified to annular flow. In this particular case the amount of liquid is small which
indicate that the flow regime transition is in the lower part of the map.
As can be seen from Equation 62, the mass flow rate is dependent on the velocity, density and area
occupied by each phase. To move towards a slug regime the mass rate of liquid must increase, and this
happens either by increase of the velocity of the liquid or by increase in area occupied by the liquid.
m =
Equation 62
Here is the superficial velocity of each phase. Each phase will have an individual equation.
8.2 Slugging
In a multiphase system the design should attempt to reduce slugging.
Terrain slugging is caused by the elevations in the pipeline, which follows the ground elevation or the
sea bed. Liquid can accumulate at a low point of the pipeline until sufficient pressure builds up behind it.
Once the liquid is pushed out of the low point, it can form a slug.
Hydrodynamic slugging is caused by gas flowing at a fast rate over a slower flowing liquid phase. The
gas will form waves on the liquid surface, which may grow to bridge the whole cross-section of the line.
This creates a blockage on the gas flow, which travels as a slug through the line.
Riser-based slugging, also known as severe slugging, is associated with the pipeline risers often found in
offshore oil production facilities. Liquids accumulate at the bottom of the riser until sufficient pressure is
generated behind it to push the liquids over the top of the riser, overcoming the static head. Behind this
slug of liquid follows a slug of gas, until sufficient liquids have accumulated at the bottom to form a new
liquid slug.
43
Pigging/ramp-up slugs are caused by pigging operations in the pipeline. The pig is designed to push all
or most of the liquids contents of the pipeline to the outlet. This intentionally creates a liquid slug.
Operationally induced surges: Created by forcing the system from one steady-state to another. For
example during ramp-up or pigging operations
44
9 Hydrates
Hydrates are crystalline material that forms when light hydrocarbon molecules mix with water at
appropriate pressure and temperature conditions. In oil system it is not necessary to have a separate
gas phase in close contact with water as there is enough hydrate forming components presents in a
hydrocarbon liquid phase.
A massive and uncontrolled formation of hydrates can result in restriction in the flowline that can
eventually develop into a full blockage; resulting in stop in production. Hydrate prevention is a key flow
assurance focus area.
45
The common hydrate control strategy is to operate outside the thermodynamic hydrate formation
envelope in all operational scenarios. Hydrate control philosophy is field specific and selection of
hydrate control strategy is based on theoretical estimated hydrate equilibrium conditions.
Figure 12 shows curves for hydrate dissociation curve for two compositions. Hydrates form in the
domain over the curve. Moving down and crossing the curves the hydrates start to melt.
46
300
250
Pressure [kgf/cm]
200
150
100
Wellfluid
50
0
T = 4C
10
15
20
25
Temperature [C]
Normal production
Planned shutdown
Unplanned shutdown
Remediation
Removal of water
47
Chemical injection
Hydraulic methods
Removal of water
Risk of hydrates forming can be alleviated by controlling the amount of water present. For example by
well completion, reservoir management and subsea processing (separation).
For gas export lines hydrates are prevented by dehydrating the gas to a specific water dew-point such
that no free water will be present at operating conditions.
For oil dominated systems separators are required to remove water. This can be performed topside or
subsea.
Chemical injection
Chemical injection of chemicals such as methanol (MeOH) and monoethylene glycol (MEG) are
commonly used for hydrate prevention. Chemical injection can either be continuous or sporadic to help
in certain operational scenarios such as shutdown and startup.
Figure 13 shows the hydrate equilibrium curve for a gas field fluid for increasing amount of MEG added.
Notice how adding MEG moves the equilibrium curve towards lower temperatures.
48
Figure 27: Show how the hydrate curve moves towards left when MEG is inhibited in system
Low-concentration inhibitors (kinetics and anti-agglomerants) are added in low concentration. Two
types exist:
49
Hydraulic methods
Hydraulic hydrate control methods covers several options:
Fluid displacement
Fluid displacement means that the content in the entire flow line or subsea component is replaced with
a non hydrate forming fluid during or prior to a planned shutdown. The displacement fluid can be dead
oil, diesel or MEG.
Compression method
For gas systems compressing the system prior to restart will result in a temperature increase which
places the fluid outside the hydrate forming domain.
Depressurization
Depressurization is a widely used strategy for avoiding hydrates formation for a planned and unplanned
shutdown. Depressurization needs to be performed before the uninhibited fluid enters the hydrate
forming domain. Partial depressurization during shutdown may help increase the cooldown time and
the time before other hydrate control measurements need to be taken.
50
The NTT is the time required after shutdown where the fluid is allowed to stay untouched before the
start of implementing any hydrate control methods.
The IMT is the time to implement hydrate control methods.
Design of thermal insulation for subsea components needs to meet the customer specified cooldown
time allowing safe operation of the system. The thermal insulation design is a focus area and a vital part
of detailed design.
Components transporting heat to the ambient are classified as cold spots. These are typically valves,
support structures, instrumentation.
Other focus areas for thermal design are deal legs. Dead legs are pipe segments containing stagnant
unhibited production fluid. These should be eliminated if possible or the length of the dead legs should
be minimized.
Cold spots and dead legs are main components focused on in the thermal insulation design.
Detailed finite element and computational fluid dynamics simulations are often needed to properly
design the thermal insulation. Design of thermal insulation can also be confirmed by full scale cooldown
test of subsea production equipment in large water filled test pits.
51
Pipeline bundling consist of a carries pipe with one or several internal oil production and/or gas
injection lines together with lines for circulation of a heating medium.
Direct Electric Heating may be used for long pipelines during shutdown to maintain the flowline
temperature above the hydrate forming temperature.
Fields need to be designed properly to minimize unwanted hydrate plugs. However, the risk cannot be
entirely eliminated so remediation methods must be identified in the design phase.
52
Chemical injection
Heating
Depressurization
Mechanical methods
Chemical injection
Thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors are used to melt hydrate plugs. The chemical needs to be able to
reach the plug so the number of and the locations of injection points are of great importance.
Heating
By heating the system the temperature will move out of the hydrate region and plugs may melt. Heating
to remove hydrates presents a high risk as large amounts of gas is released when melting hydrates
causing a large pressure buildup. 1 m3 of hydrates may contain typically 0.8 m3 of water and 150 Sm3 of
gas.
Depressurization
Depressurization is commonly used for removing hydrate plugs. Care has to be taken though. Reducing
the pressure on one side of the plug only may cause the plug to travel like a projectile though the piping
driven by the high pressure on the other side of the plug. The plug may then cause great damage to the
piping.
Mechanical methods
Hydrated may be removed by mechanical means using pigging, hydrate tractors or by replacing the
piping.
involving component design, piping design and flow assurance including cold spot management and
thermal analyses. Thermal finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) play an
important role in the development of thermal insulation design of complex components.
The approach to thermal design consists of several steps:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
54
When a mechanical system is placed in contact with a fluid in motion, whether internal or external, it is
usually exposed to unsteady forces, for example caused by the vortices shed downstream in its wake
(see Figure 30). If the mechanical system if absolutely rigid (no degrees of freedom), then there is no
mechanical response to these forces. If, on the other hand, the mechanical system has degrees of
freedom, then the unsteady flow forces will induce a mechanical response, defined as a "vibration" if
the structure's motion is oscillating around a constant value (defined as its position of equilibrium).
The interaction between the (unsteady) fluid forces and the mechanical system's inertial, damping and
elastic forces is defined as "Flow-Induced Vibrations (FIV)" if the flow is internal and "Vortex-Induced
Vibrations (VIV) if the flow is external.
10.2 Fatigue
Vibration of a subsea structure due to a flow are usually of small amplitudes, typically of the order of 1
mm to 10 cm, and do not create enough stress in the material to provoke an instant rupture. However,
those vibrations may be large enough so that, repeated over a sufficiently long period of time, they
induce fatigue issues.
Each time a section of pipe experiences a vibration cycle with a certain amplitude, stresses will be
created close to the points where this pipe is attached. This is shown in Figure 31 for a piece of piping
called a "jumper", which usually conveys oil and gas from a production tree to a production manifold.
Those cyclic stresses are minimal, of the order of 10 to 50 MPa, but when repeated over millions and
millions of cycles, they may be enough to induce the formation of microscopic cracks in the material.
Those cracks will grow very slowly at first, then more and more rapidly until the pipe breaks without
warning, after months or years of operations (Figure 32).
55
downstream of the structure at a distinct frequency, creating an almost sinusoidal response. Usually,
ensuring that the structure's eigenfrequencies are not close to the vortex shedding frequency is enough
to mitigate the problem. Alternatively, strakes similar to those found on factory chimneys exposed to
the wind can be installed to break the coherence of the vortices and suppress the vibration.
Vibration due to the internal flow of oil, gas, water or chemicals inside subsea production systems is a
much more complex phenomenon, with multiple physical phenomena involved. FIV is still in many
aspects an active field of research, to which FMC Technologies and Forsys Subsea contribute with other
partners from the industry. The following does not aim at presenting an exhaustive view of FIV, but just
to illustrate the variety and complexity of the physics involved. For more information, reference is made
to Forsys Subsea's lecture material (presentations).
10.3.1 Singing riser
Risers are long, large diameter flexible pipes which convey production flow between a surface
production unit (a vessel or a platform) and the seabed. Often, those risers convey very dry gas, either
for production (coming up to the platform) or injection (down to the seabed).
The inner surface of those risers is not smooth as for pipes. Because they need to be flexible, they are
built by imbricating metal elements which can rotate with respect to each other, allowing the riser to
deform without breaking. The drawback is that the inner surface of the riser is corrugated, i.e. it consists
of many concentric cavities as shown in Figure 33.
When dry gas flows on top of those cavities inside the riser, small vortices are shed into each cavity at
the upstream edge, and collide with the downstream edge. This induces an oscillating pressure field,
and the oscillation can be amplified by acoustic resonance inside each cavity. For some flow conditions,
the acoustic resonance from all those small cavities will merge to produce a powerful pressure
pulsation, i.e. sound wave, inside the riser. This sound can severely limit production if it exceeds the
allowable safety levels on a platform, for example.
57
58
If the density and velocity of the fluid is constant, as in the example above, then the reaction force is
constant: the term shown in red in Figure 35 vanishes and there is no time dependence for the sum of
the external forces.
If however, the fluid density varies with time, as is the case for multiphase flow, then the reaction force
is transient. A very simplified example is provided in Figure 36 below. A slug of liquid has a density much
59
higher than that of the gas phase which is present in front and behind the slug. As the slug changes
direction inside the bend, a reaction force is created, which is higher than the reaction force from the
gas flow. If slugs are passing at a regular time interval, typically of the order of 1 second, and the piping
section has an eigenfrequency around 1 Hz, resonance will occur and the piping will experience
significant levels of vibration.
Modeling of the transient forces induced by the flow. This can be done in various ways, for
example by the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) on multiphase flows
Application of those transient forces to a dynamic mechanical model of the system. This
requires modeling and analysis skills in structural mechanics.
Determination of the system response and cyclic stresses at the hot-spots (connection points for
the system, ref. Figure 31)
Fatigue analysis to determine the fatigue life of the system
A system will in general be considered as safe to operate if the fatigue life, i.e. the estimated time
before a failure occurs, is longer than the life of the field.
One particular aspect of FIV is that the flow excitation is broadband: contrary to VIV, flow excitation
does not occur at a single frequency, but over a wide range of frequencies. This means that there is
usually no possibility to avoid resonance by shifting the eigenfrequencies of the system outside the
range of flow excitation. In other words, resonance cannot be avoided.
60
11 Wax
Wax is a class of hydrocarbons that are natural constituents of any crude oil and most gas condensates.
Waxy oils may create problems in oil production due to three main reasons:
Restricted flow due to reduced inner diameter in pipelines and increased wall roughness
First, there is a potential for the wax to crystallize and adhere onto surfaces like the pipe wall in a
pipeline and thereby form a deposit layer which will increase with time and eventually, in the worst
case, completely block the line. Such deposition will reduce the capacity of the line by decreasing the
effective diameter and increasing the wall roughness and thus the pressure drop in turbulent flow. For
any pipeline experiencing wax deposition, there has to be a wax control strategy. Most often, the wax
control strategy simply consists of scraping the wax away from the pipe wall by regular pigging.
Sometimes, substantial quantities of wax are removed from the line. In one case several tons of wax was
collected in the pig trap at Statfjord B after pigging the line from Snorre B.
Figure 37: Part of wax plug retrieved from the pig trap at Statfjord B (sept 2001)
Secondly, wax precipitation causes the bulk viscosity of the oil to increase sharply and become shearrate dependent (non-Newtonian), leading to increased pressure losses. Ultimately, when a sufficient
amount of solid wax has precipitated (approximately 4-6 wt%), the wax tends to form a threedimensional network resulting in even larger viscosity increase ending up with a completely gelled
61
structure with solid-like mechanical properties. Particularly during production shut-downs, when the oil
is allowed to cool statically in the pipeline, this may be a severe situation, since high pressure may be
required to break down the gel structure upon restart. When performing regular pigging of a pipeline,
the internal diameter is maintained as no/little wax deposit is allowed to build up. This will ensure an
efficient flow.
Figure 38: Wax can deposit at inner walls if the temperature is below WAT
62
Table 3: U-value sensitivity to evaluate whether insulation can be used as wax control
Pipe size
Tin [C]
U-value [W/m2K]
80
200
750 m
80
50
3000 m
80
52 km
80
128 km
60
200
500 m
60
50
2000 m
60
35 km
40
200
150 m
40
50
600 m
40
10 km
The wax appearance temperature of most "normal", paraffin North Sea oils and condensates is in the
range 30 to 40C.
Hot flushing or direct heating must be at a temperature at least 20C above WAT (WDT Wax
Disappearance Temperature).
63
12 Erosion
12.1 Causes of erosion
Erosion can be generated by a number of phenomena:
Particulate erosion
Solids produced
Cavitation
Erosion corrosion
Particulate erosion by sand is most likely to cause erosive failures in oil and gas production systems.
64
12.1.2 Cavitation
When liquid passes through a restriction low pressure areas can be generated. If the pressure is reduced
below the vapor pressure of the liquid, bubbles are formed. These bubbles then collapse generating
shock waves. These shock waves can be of sufficient amplitude to damage pipework.
The collapse of vapor bubbles may result in loud noise, vibrations and erosion.
If the collapse occurs on a wall/material surface, a micro jet of liquid is formed and will be impacting on
the surface. This will create a high pressure pulse
Cavitation occurs rarely in oil and gas production systems as the operating pressures are well above
vapor pressure, but can be seen in chokes, control valves and pump impellers.
In a purely corrosive flow new pipework components typically corrode very rapidly until a brittle
scale develops on the surfaces exposed to the fluid. This scale layer forms a barrier between the
metal and the fluid that substantially reduces the penetration rate.
In highly erosive flows, in which corrosion is also occurring, the erosion process predominates
and scale is scoured from exposed surfaces before it can influence the penetration rate.
At intermediate conditions erosion and corrosion mechanisms can interact. In this case scale can
form and then be periodically removed by the erosive particles.
Gas systems generally has higher velocities than liquid systems; making them more prone to erosion.
However oil fields may have a higher concentration of produced sand.
a) Small particles
b) Medium particles
c) Large particle
(liquid system)
(gas system)
Drag forces on sand particles are different in liquids and gases. Erosion rates in gas flows are usually
greater than in liquid flows operating at the same velocities. Also, the erosion scar position will be
different.
66
Equation 63
Here
()
Note that material loss is proportional with the amount of solids/sand impacting on a surface provided
the sand concentration is not too high; i.e. typically <1-5% by volume.
67
practice includes an impact erosion model and empirical models for calculating erosion in common
piping components such as:
-
Straight pipes
Welded joints
Reducers
Elbows
Blind tees
For multiphase flow, DNV uses mixture velocities and mixture density and viscosity as input to the
flow/particle calculations. These empirical models have proved useful in estimating erosion due to sand
production and aiding in the design and line sizing of subsea systems.
Another often used guideline is the API 14E although it is widely accepted to be misleading and
incorrect. The API 14E standard does not account for the physical phenomena governing the erosion
process. Note also that the recommendations given in API 14E are highly conservative for liquid flows
and under-estimate the potential for erosion in gas flows.
For complex geometries or if more detailed analysis is required, CFD is required to determine the
particle trajectories and particle impact characteristics. Contribution to local pipe wall erosion is
calculated by adding up contributions for each particle impact on the wall using the DNV GL particle
erosion impact model:
= ()
Equation 64
Mass of particles impacting on the surface is denoted and the resulting wall material loss is denoted
.The material grade is characterized by the material constant and and a material response
function (). The material parameters are determined by testing.
The shape of the material function () depends on the type of group for used. Figure 24 shows ()
for both ductile materials (steel) and brittle materials respectively. For ductile materials, e.g. steel
grades, the most critical erosion is obtained at impact angle in the range 25-40. For brittle materials;
e.g. ceramics or WC materials, the most critical impact angle is close to 90. The difference in most
68
critical impact angle for ductile and brittle materials is reflecting the difference in erosion mechanisms.
Material removal/erosion for ductile materials are due to mechanical action, while for brittle materials
the removal of material/erosion is due to brittle fracture due to repeated impact at the material surface.
Figure 41: Material function F() for ductile and brittle materials
For steel grades DNV uses K = 2 E-9 (m/s)-n and n=2.6. It is documented experimentally that the erosion
characteristics/resistance is more or less the same all standard steel grades. For wolfram carbide (brittle
material) K=1.1E-10 to 3.2E-10 (m/s)-n depending of type and n = 2.2.
The DNV GL erosion models are developed based on tests with angular particles representative for
particles produced in the North Sea. Erosion is dependent on the shape of the particles; i.e. the erosion
rate increases with the angularity. Sharp/very angular particles may typically give 2-3 the erosion rate as
for angular particles, while rounded particles may give 2-3 times less erosion than angular particles.
Purpose
Output
FlowManagerTM
Multiphase design
Steady state
Pressure
Temperature
Flow Rates
70
Simulation model
Purpose
Output
FlowManagerTM Design
Multiphase design
Steady state
Includes subsea process
modules as compressor,
pump, separation etc.
Pressure-temperature-flow rate
analysis of long flow lines
Pressure
Temperature
FlowManagerTM Dynamic
Multiphase design
Transient
Includes subsea process
modules as compressor,
pump, separation etc.
Flow Assurance philosophy
Process control philosophy,
control system and
operational procedures
Flow rates
Pressures
Temperatures
Input to line sizing
Test of functionality
Equipment sizes
71
Simulation model
Purpose
Output
PVTsim
Hydrate curve
Hydrate curves
Wax appearance
Composition of multiphase
fluids
Phase envelope
RP O501 DNV
Erosion calculations
CFD multiphase
CFD/FEA
Thermal analysis
Multiphase design
Pressure-temperature-flow rate
analysis of long flow lines
Steady state
Pressure
Temperature
Flow rates
Flow regime
OLGA transient multiphase
Multiphase design
Flow regime
Slug tracking
Slug volume
Multiphase design
CFX
72
Types/Concept
New fields
Normal
accessible fields
Unique
combination of
fluid properties,
pressure,
temperature,
topography and
field layout
combination
Hydrate management
Wax Management
Erosion (Velocity)
Flow Induced Vibrations
Oil
Hydrate management
Wax management
Difficult
accessible fields
Very deep
water and/or
reservoirs
Boosting requirements
Hydrate
Wax
Long tie-ins
Pressure drop
Hydrate
Wax
Hydrate
Wax
Asphaltenes, scale
Temperature
High pressure drop
73
Types of fields
Types/Concept
Examples
Old fields
Tail-end
production
High
pressure/high
temperature
Typically gas
Increased
Oil/Gas recovery
with boosting
Dry Gas
compression
(Subsea
compression,
liquid pump,
separator)
sgard
Wet Gas
compression
Gullfaks
Ormen Lange
Multiphase
Pump
Water prod
Hydrate
Scale
Separation
* All fields are unique which means that the combination of fluid properties, pressures and
temperatures and field layout must be evaluated for each new field
14.2 Floater/Subsea
At the time being the subsea concepts very often competes with a more traditional floater solution.
For shallow water depths, bottom-founded facilities like jack up drilling rigs and fixed offshore structures
can be used, and where saturation diving is feasible.
Recently, all subsea solutions are also considered in shallow water fields as they can compete with
floating platforms in cost and reliability.
74
75
76
With its 115 subsea wells Troll is the largest subsea development in the world. The wells are
characterized by their production from thin oil zones which has required the development of new
drilling and completion technology (1995).
Troll pilot started production in the Troll field in 2001. It was the first subsea separation system to be
installed on the sea bed at 340 meters and 3.5 km from the platform.
By means of the gravity method produced water is separated from the oil and gas flow from four of Troll
C's producing wells. The water is then injected back into the reservoir, while the separated oil and gas
are sent up to the platform.
77
The Troll C subsea separation system is tied back 3.3 km to the Troll C platform in 350 m of water. The
subsea station makes it possible to separate water from the well stream on the seafloor and re-inject it
into a low-pressure aquifer so that the water does not have to be transported back to the main
platform. Eight wells can be routed through the processing station, which is designed to process four
wells at a time, provided they are at normal production rates.
The main processing modules are the horizontal gravity-based separation vessel and the subsea water
re-injection pump. A fully automated control system with separation level instrumentation and variable
speed drive system provides the main functional blocks for control of the process system.
The well stream is routed into the separator from one of the main production lines. Pre-processing is
done in an innovative inlet mechanism called a low-shear de-gassing device. Its purpose is to split the
gas and liquids to reduce the speed of the liquids and limit the emulsion formed. Once past the inlet
device, the liquid is allowed to settle in the separator vessel, and the separated water is taken out
directly to the water re-injection pump. From there, the oil and gas is commingled and forced back to
the Troll C semi by the flowing pressure in the separator and pipeline system. The separated produced
78
water is re-injected into the disposal reservoir by the subsea water injection pump via a dedicated
injection well.
Depth: 340 m, Step-out: 600 m, Design pressure: 179 bar, Design temperature: -5-68 C, Operation
pressure: 16-40 bar, Operation temperature: 40-60 C
15.2 Tordis
Located in the Tampen area west of Bergen Tordis came on stream in 1994. After many years of
operation the energy (pressure) in the reservoir has dropped and in addition the water content in the
produced liquid has increased.
The reduced energy is thus used for transporting great volumes of superfluous liquid.
Typical challenges for mature subsea oil fields are increased water cut which has the following
consequences:
Reduced production
79
Increased oil recovery from Tordis field increased the recovery from 49% to 55% which added 35 million
barrels of oil reserves.
80
Water and sand are separated from the well stream close to the reservoir and injected into a subsea
formation for storage.
In addition a multi-phase pump helps send oil and gas through a 10-kilometre pipeline to Gullfaks C for
processing, storage and export.
Optimizing the use of energy, this solution is also environmentally friendly as it reduces the volume of
produced water discharged into the sea.
81
82
15.4 Marlim
Mature field, in operation since 1991
83
consumption
84
16 Vocabulary
Abbreviation
Definition
ASV
Bar
Bara
Barg
BHP
CFD
Computational Fluid Dynamics, both Fluent and CFX are simulation packages
for CFD (solution of the full Navier-Stokes equations, nonlinear and
dynamic)
CFD
Company
Petrobras
Company
StatoilHydro
Conceptual Design
CP
Cathodic Protection
DNV
dP
Differential Pressure
EPC
ESD
FEA
FEED
FIV
85
Abbreviation
Definition
Formation water
GLR
GOR
GVF
Gas Volume Fraction, used to express the fraction of the volume occupied
by gas in a gas liquid mixture at any pressure, (Volume of gas/Volume of
gas+oil+water)
HISC
HYSYS
ID
Inner Diameter
IOR
LP
Low Pressure
Manifold
Branch pipe
MEG
MFP
MSm3/d
Mega Standard
ND
Nominal Diameter
OLGA
PDT
PLIM
ppm
PSD
PVT
86
Abbreviation
Definition
ROV
SCM
SCS(t)
Slug
Slug Catcher
Liquid catcher
SPS
SSAO
SSBS
Standard
Surge
Template
THP
TQP
UPS
UTA
VCM
Vol%
Volume percentage
VSD
WC
WI
Water Injection
WSIP
Wt
weight
yr
Year
87
17 Literature
[1] PipeFlow 1 and 2, Ove Bratland, free on net
[2] NORSOK standard P-001, Process design, free on net
[3] Innfring I fluidmekanikk, UiO, Bjrn Gjevik
[4] An introduction to multiphase flow, UiO, Ruben Schulkes
[5] Applied fluid dynamics handbook, Blevins, Krieger
[6] Guidelines for the Avoidance of Vibration Induced Failure in Process Pipework.
[7] Water content of gas, chart, attached
[8] Hydraulics of pipeline systems, B.E. Larock, R.W. Jeppson and G.Z. Watters, CRC Press, 2000
88
18 Attachments
18.1 Water content in natural gas
89