An Overview of Flow Assurance Heat Management Systems in Subsea Flowlines

Abstract

The enormous cost of handling the challenges of flow assurance in subsea wells, flowlines, and risers, especially in deepwater applications, has necessitated a proactive approach to prevent their risk of occurrence. To ensure that transportation of the hydrocarbon is economical and efficient from the subsea wellhead to the processing units, a flow assurance heat management system is relevant in the design and planning of a fluid transport system. Consequently, the advancement of new technologies to serve the increasing need by exploring the technologically challenging and hostile subsea fields is of great importance. A comparative study on heat management systems in flowlines was conducted from the top five publishers (Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and Sage) based on the number of publications to determine the level of work done by researchers in the last decade, the figures from the study showed the need for scientific research in the field of active heating. Additionally, a review was implemented to ascertain the likely advantages and drawbacks of each technique, its limitations concerning field applications and then recommend suitable cost-effective technique(s). The active heating system gives the most cost-effective solution for subsea deepwater fields.

Numerical study and sensitivity analysis of two-phase oil-water flow and heat transfer in different flowline orientations using OpenFOAM

“…Flow assurance in the petroleum industry is one of the biggest problems bedeviling hydrocarbon production and this can cause serious challenges to subsea deepwater field developments [8][9][10]. This type of environment is characterized by low seabed temperature and high hydrostatic pressures, which may influence the flow of the produced hydrocarbon fluids (oil, gas, and water) through the flowline up to the processing facilities [8,9]. In addition, the flowline has sections with different orientations, usually between − 10 o and +10 o due to uneven seabed which affects the flow regimes [11,12] (Fig.…”

Thermal system for a new flexible composite tank

“…At present, most research on the insulation of offshore oil equipment focuses on oil pipelines. The main measures used to prevent oil product development of wax plugs during transmission include chemical methods, pipeline insulation, direct electric heating, and noncontact heating methods (Candelier et al, 2015;Sunday et al, 2021). The goal of each method is to reduce oil viscosity during the transportation process to ensure the flow demand.…”

A Comparative Numerical Investigation of the Behavior of Two‐Phase Hydrocarbon Flow Phenomena in Horizontal Flowline with Different Turbulence Models Using OpenFOAM

“…Thus, the sizing of multiphase lines needs distinct or extra measures than those applied to single-phase lines [2,20,21]. Flow assurance is very important for two-phase fluid transportation and calls for an evaluation of both the transient and steady-state situations that initiate likely issues that could emerge in the system [2,17].…”

“…The two‐phase fluid flow behavior and techniques depicted in Fig. 1 are of enormous interest, particularly in the oil and gas industry, where the likelihood of crude oil transportation from the reservoir to the surface processing facility in a single‐line architecture results in a reasonable cost reduction 2, 17, 18. Pipeline design requires many instances of precise pressure drop estimation to guarantee that the hydrocarbon does not drift during transport from its working limits, thereby causing injury to personnel, equipment, or the plant 1, 2, 19.…”

“…Numerous technical and scientific research efforts have been made in identifying flow patterns from fluid flow in pipelines 2, 22, 23. Recent techniques for modeling hydrodynamic two‐phase flow generally consist of either mechanistic or empirical models 1, 24.…”