: Introduction to Offshore Petroleum Production System

Yutaek Seo

Period
1 Week General introduction, outline, goals, and definition

Contents

2 Week

Type of reservoir fluids : Dry gas / Wet gas / Gas condensate / Volatile oil / Black oil PVT laboratory testing : Constant mass expansion / Differential vaporization / Compositional analysis / : Oil densities and viscosity / SARA, Asphaltenes, WAT Fluid sampling and characterization : Bottom hole samples / Drill stem test samples / Case studies

3 Week

4-5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week

11 Week 12 Week

Thermodynamics and phase behavior : Ideal gas / Peng-Robinson (PR) / Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) : Peneloux liquid density correction / Mixtures / Properties calculated from EoS Subsea Field Development : Field configuration / Artificial rift / Well layout Well components : Well structures/Christmas tree Subsea manifolds/PLEM and subsea connections : Components / design / installation Umbilical / risers / flowlines : Design criteria/ analysis Flow regime : Horizontal and vertical flow / Stratified flow / Annular flow / Dispersed bubble flow / Slug flow Flowline pressure drop and liquid holdup : Frictional losses / Elevation losses / Acceleration losses / Errors in P calculation / Pipe wall roughness Thermal conductivity and heat transfer : Overall heat transfer coefficient / insulation design

13 Week
14 Week 15 Week

Flow assurance issues : Hydrate/Wax/Asphaltene/Corrosion/Scale

Field operation : Operational procedures for offshore petroleum production Homework exercise (22nd May) / Final test (24th May)

What are gas hydrates?

Four major changes

Hydrate stability zone

P, T profile in offshore flowlines
: 8.27 inch ID, 27.6 mile insulated flowline (overall U-value of 3.6 Btu/hr ft2 oF) : 28 APIo black oil (gas gravity 0.83, GOR 200 scf/bbl)

Where do hydrate form?

Three major hydrate hot spots 1) Water accumulation and hydrate blockage in riser 2) Hydrate deposition and blockage in flowline (well to platform) 3) Hydrate blockage by JT cooling in subsea and top side chokes Shut-in & restart, water ingress in gas export line also cause hydrate incidents

Hydrate strategy change

However, still avoidance concept is dominant for design and operation of oil and gas field, since industry is not ready to take the risk of hydrate management as hydrate troubles are too expensive

North Sea Plug Case History

16inch, 22mile pipeline in UK sector MEG injection line had sheared 1.2 mile long plug Upstream of platform by <0.25 miles FPSO brought in from Stavanger Depressurized both sides of plug 8 weeks total downtime, $3MM cost

Complete FPSO/Manifold Interface

Pipeline operating scenarios

Hydrate formation in gas dominant system

- Hydrate formation in gas condensate system 1) Emulsification of oil into water 2) Hydrate nucleation and growth 3) Adhesion and aggregation 4) Deposition 5) Jamming or plugging

- Hydrate formation in gas system 1) Hydrate coating on wall 2) Annulus growth of coating 3) Sloughing 4) Plugging Coating of hydrate on pipe wall is resulted from no emulsification and not enough interfacial tension Pipe material can make difference Q. What cause the sloughing?

Hydrate formation of water in oil emulsion

Liquid layer around hydrate particle results in 10 times higher attraction force than without layer Only 4% of hydrate formation can induce hydrate plug in emulsion Viscosity of emulsions has been used to explain the flow behaviour of fluid

Q. What percent of hydrate in water phase can induce hydrate plug for gas or gas/condensate system?

Hydrate formation process

Hydrate do not act like hard spheres Hydrate particles appear to aggregate (concentrated emulsion)

Q. During the hydrate formation process, which physical property it has to be monitored? Viscosity?

Proposed hydrate deposition for annular flow

Proposed hydrate deposition for wavy flow

Proposed hydrate deposition for stratified flow

Pipeline pressure drops due to hydrate

Early warning signs of hydrates

(including top side separator)

Hydrate formation in Werner Bolley gas line

sloughing

plugging

: Hydrate formation by coating and sloughing : Pressure spikes by onset of hydrate and partial plug at middle : Pressure surge by complete plug at final

Hydrate kinetic management

- Shells SE Tahoe field

Hydrate kinetic management

- Condensate flow loop (single-pass)

- Hydrates formed in bulk phase : No deposit on wall in absence of free H2O - Hydrates/ice formed at the pipe/hydrate/ice interface will remain on wall : Dissolved water yields uniformly dispersed deposit : Free water results in localized deposit - Hydrate/ice deposits can be dissociated with or without chemicals : Flowing an undersaturated condensate past deposit/plug : Using MeOH dissolved in condensate - Mass and energy balances can be used to model deposition : Ice with a 67% void fraction reasonably matches P and temp profiles from three experiments As long as there is flow, gas flow line can be dried that would induce hydrate melting

PT trace for hydrate formation

A: No hydrate P decrease with T for hrs B: Hydrates begin to form Q. Does this metastable region really exist in real gas flowline? Shut-in? Q. If does, is it useful to avoid hydrate plug?

T subcooling

Measurements of Hydrate Nucleation

Hydrate Nucleation Measurement Tools

Hydrate film growth at water-methane interface

Hydrate film growth at the water-HC interface and the effect of T

Water droplet conversion to hydrate

Hydrate kinetics can be controlled by

Mass and heat transfer limitations

Hydrate plug: rule of thumb

Early warning signs of hydrates

How are hydrate plugs located?

How do they dissociate?

Pictures of dissociating hydrate plugs

Hydrate dissociation with ice and water present

Plug dissociation guideline

Dissociation guidelines (contd)

Hydrate mitigation
Insulation
- Pipe-in-pipe - Wet Insulation

Active heating systems

- Hot Water - Electric

Subsea Chemicals Injection

- Methanol, MEG - LDHI

Flowline Pressure Reduction

Hydrate remediation techniques

Depressurization
- One sided - Two Sided

Active heating systems

- Hot Water - Electric

Subsea MeOH or MEG Injection (can you get it to the plug?) Coiled Tubing

Thermodynamic Hydrate Inhibitors (THIs)

Methanol
: Low cost : Low viscosity : No fouling : More toxic : Too little can be worse than none at low levels : Inefficient to recover : Reduce hydrocarbon sales value : High loss to gas phase

MEG
: Less toxic : Under-treating not as bad : Efficient to recover : Does not affect hydrocarbon value : Loss to gas phase negligible : High viscosity : Salts precipitation : Fouling by salt deposition

Low Dosage Hydrate Inhibitors (LDHI)

KHI
: Liquid HC not needed : Any water cut : Doesnt cause emulsions : Low pressure drop : Prolonged induction time : Cant disperse hydrates : Medium subcooling (<14oC) : Affected by shut-in : Environmentally friendly

AA
: Require liquid hydrocarbon : Water cut limitation : Can be high pressure drop : Shot induction time : Disperse slushy hydrates : High subcooling : Less impact from shut-in : Mostly toxic

Application factors for THI

Injection hardware Delivery & storage - large volumes Loss to hydrocarbon phase Salt precipitation Compatibility (materials & chemical) In-situ vs average water production rate Environmental, health & safety Regeneration

Application factors for LDHI

Injection point (subsea tree, manifold, and/or downhole) Hydrocarbon effect on performance Compatibility (materials & chemical) Environmental impact Solvent stripping In-situ vs average water production rate Other physical properties (flash point, pour point, viscosity) Solids

Inhibitor injection rate

Hydrate Curve and Wellbore Shut-in Conditions

12000

10000
Mud Line

4513 ft 5070 ft 5516 ft BML BML BML 4068 ft 3511 ft 3065 ft BML BML 2062 ft 2507 ft BML BML 1059 ft 1505 ft BML 502 ft BML BML BML

Shut-in Wellbore Conditions

6073 ft BML

8000

Pressure (psia)

6000

4000

2000

0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100

Temperature (F)

MEG Regeneration Unit

MRU for Santos FPSO

MEG loop and challenges with salt precipitation

Main concerns
Formation water : Monovalent cations, Na+, K+ : Divalent cations, Ca2+, Mg2+, Ba2+, Sr2+ : Organic acids, glycolic, formic acids : Precipitation of CaCO3, MgCO3 Pipeline corrosion (CO2, H2S) : Iron (Fe2+) : pH controller NaOH, KOH, NaHCO3, Na2CO3, and amines : Precipitation of Fe2CO3, Fe2O3 Completion fluids : Highly soluble salts, CaCl2, CaBr2, Ca(HCOO) 2 : Precipitation of BaCO3, etc

Control strategy
Low soluble salts (Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+, CO32-) : Divalent cations will easily precipitate and form scale : All salts must be removed with controlled precipitation (alkalinity and temperature control) High soluble salts (Na+, K+, Cl-) : Monovalent cations may accumulate up to 75000 mg/l without precipitation and may be tolerable : Precipitation by supersaturation Other chemicals : Some components (acetate, corrosion inhibitor) will not precipitate but accumulates in the Reclaimer

Full stream
Asgard B platform

Slip stream
Ormen Lange

Off gas Vent

Free Water

Flare, CO2

Condensate

Rich MEG tank

Pre-treatment

Regeneration

Produced Water

Low Soluble Salt Removal

H2O MEG

Reclamation

To Subsea

Lean MEG tank

Treated MEG High Soluble Salt Removal

Distillation column design

To determine distillation duty a. Select distillation operating temperature, Top. From the boiling point of lean MEG
MEG concentration T (oC) 70 116 75 120 80 125 85 131

b. Calculate heat duty of pre-treatment stage c. Calculate the temperature of rich MEG entering distillation d. Calculate heat duty of distillation Qdist = z richMEG CrichMEG T + X L
where, Qdist : distillation duty, W z richMEG: rich MEG recycle rate, kg/s CrichMEG: average specific heat rich MEG, J/kg K T: Tdist Tin, oC X: total water removed, kg/s L: latent heat water, J/kg

Separator design
MEG flash drum : Separation between MEG and hydrocarbon is critical to avoid excessive MEG losses and entrainment of hydrocarbon : Hydrocarbon carry-over may induce foaming problem : 20 to 25 minutes of residence time is recommended : Coalescer or filter should be considered on the hydrocarbon stream leaving the flash vessel : Horizontal 2-phase with weir was considered (ID1.2m*L4.8m) : Gas rate 3.0*10-5m3/sr, rich MEG 7542 kg/hr, water rate 0.002 m3/s (Inpex followed sizing basis of Total: GS EP ECP 103) MEG reflux drum : 20 to 35 minutes of residence time : Reflux ratio depends on the residence time in reflux drum, rich MEG flow rate, and regeneration efficiency

Next Class : Wax Homework 10. Calculate the methanol injection rate using the Hammerschmidt equation