Flow Assurance Engineering in Deepwater Offshore - Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to provide a review of the evolution of the flow assurance discipline over the years as it applies to the design of gathering and export pipeline systems. In the early days, pipeline design was essentially a job for one engineer when pipelines were on land or in shallow water, not in a new geological province, flowing temperatures / pressures were not abnormal, and had no multi-phase flow or contaminants. This paper will identify events or circumstances that affected how "~Pipeline Hydraulics" were designed. Flow Assurance Engineering has evolved from two fundamental pillars – thermo-hydraulic analysis of fluid flow in production systems, and production chemistry. Today, flow assurance engineers in a project not only provide predictions, but also prevention strategies, and remediation methods for: Fluid characteristicsFlow hydraulics and thermal behaviorsPerformance of the production systemGuidance of operation strategiesIdentification and management of solid deposition issues: hydratesparaffins (waxes)asphaltenesscales, etc. They interface with multiple disciplines involved with the project, including subsurface, pipeline and risers, subsea hardware, topsides process facilities, chemical vendors, the fluid laboratory, etc. Beginning in the late 1940s, pipelines began transporting hydrocarbons over long distances onshore (conversion of the Big Inch Crude and Little Inch product pipelines to natural gas service for example) when unforeseen flow problems began to occur. Exploration gradually moved to nearshore drilling, and finally, to shallow water. Additional flow problems increased in complexity and magnitude. To track how these increasingly complex flow problems affected pipeline design, this paper presents: The evolution of Flow Assurance from simple hydraulics calculations to a well-defined engineering disciplineThe critical responsibilities in current deepwater development - Greenfield and Brownfield projectsThe re-shaping of Flow Assurance Engineering by digital revolution and big data technologiesThe evolution of the discipline applying new technologies to unlock new reserves with longer, deeper tiebacks

Digital transformation: a review on artificial intelligence techniques in drilling and production applications

“…Bomba et al [ 66 ], through a literature review, show the main relevant aspects about the evolution of the flow assurance discipline. The authors point out that the artificial intelligence tools and machine learning will be fundamental for future research in the area, which must advance in the understanding of multiphase flows, and which will also involve classifications and predictions, as well as prevention strategies and remediation methods, such as hydrate identification and management.…”

“…Here, it is relevant an explanation. Some authors [ 66 ] include issues of hydrates in production lines in the broader scope of the flow assurance discipline,in this work, we emphasize the hydrate questions due to the focus on the use of digital technologies. Some of the papers deal with a specific question, for example, oil production in hydrate zones.…”

“…Traditional solutions for hydrate management involved avoiding entering the hydrate thermodynamic zone with the proposal of minimizing hydrate formation [ 58 ]. The conservative strategies are thermal insulation of subsea equipment and flowlines to retain heat, chemical injection of methanol or hydrate inhibitor, and pressure reduction [ 66 ]. These strategies are expensive and restrict the exploration and development of several oil reserves.…”

Application of Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) in Gas Hydrate Mitigation

“…Gas hydrate was developed in a pipeline where many efforts have been made in the 1930s to understand the clathrate hydrate in terms of structure, compound, balance state and way of managing them due to it poses issues such as plugging of pipelines to produce offshore oil and gas, pressure drop and corrosion plants [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. When sufficient water molecules in the form of oil and hydrocarbon vapour crystallize under intermittent flow conditions, gas hydrate or known as clathrate hydrate occurs.…”

“…In conjunction, the function of KHI is to delay crystallisation of hydrate and the function of AAs is to promote distortion of hydrate molecules [10]. Conversely, because of improvement in deep-sea pipeline placement, the use of THIs is not effective because it creates high operational and capital expense (CAPEX) relative to LDHIs that are more cost-effective [1,13].…”