Petro Middle East

FLOW ASSURANCE SERVICE

• Introduction.

• What is Flow Assurance?

• What is the type of Challenges in the Oil & Gas industry?

• Why is Flow Assurance needed in the Oil & Gas industry?

• How can we increase the Process safety?

Contents

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.

• Besides network modeling and transient multiphase simulation, flow assurance involves effectively handling many solid deposits, such as, gas hydrates, asphaltene, wax, scale, and naphthenates.

What is Flow Assurance?

What is the type of Challenges in the Oil & Gas industry?

Various Phenomena that may occur once the fluid is off-equilibrium during production from reservoir to process facility

Gas Phase

P and/or T Solubility of heavier Hydrocarbon's Liquid condensate forms

T Solubility of Water Vapor Liquid water phase forms

P Solubility of Water Vapor Liquid water evaporated

T Solubility of paraffins Wax precipitates in condensate

Gas + Liquid + Mechanical agitation Foaming

Liquid Hydrocarbon Phase

P and/or T Solubility of light Hydrocarbon's Gas phase forms

T Solubility of paraffins Wax precipitates

P Solubility of asphaltenes Asphaltenes precipitate

Oil + Water + Mechanical agitation Emulsions form

Liquid Water Phase

T < 0 ℃ Ice becomes stable Solid ice forms

P and/or T Solubility of CO2 and H2S pH

pH Hydrocarbon components become surface active Emulsion stability

P and/or T change Solubility of dissolved ions change Mineral scale deposition

P High, T Low + Water + Light Hydrocarbons Hydrate Formation

Operations Consequences Results from WAX Deposition

• WAX deposition can foul the internal surface which results in increasing the pressure drop.

• Restricting the flow leading to possibility of blockage.

• Increasing the viscosity of a waxy film will require additional pressure driving force.

• Hydrates will lead to increased pressure drop and ultimately to full flow blockages.

• Hydrates can form in bulk liquid and agglomerate in flow path restrictions, such as chokes.

• Hydrate plug can be tens of meters long

Hydrates Operation Consequence

Scale Operation Consequence

• Wells producing water are likely to develop deposits of inorganic scales.

• Scales can and do coat perforations, casing, production tubulars, valves, pumps, and down hole completion equipment, such as safety equipment and gas lift mandrels.

• If allowed to proceed, this scaling will limit production, eventually requiring abandonment of the well.

How can we increase the Process safety?

For PRODUCTION RECOVERY

Well restart Hydrate Remediation Wax Removal

For OPERATIONS SUPPORT

Slugging Pigging Chemical Injection

For PRODUCTION ENHANCEMENT

ESP Design/Gas-Lift Optimization Process Hydraulic Optimization

For DESIGN

Well Performance Pipeline and Equipment SizingInput to Process, Mechanical Design

and Material Selection

Understanding Your Fluid

• Fluid Analysis: Is performed to ensure the fluid basis is representative of production fluid.

• System Hydraulic Capacity: Pipeline sizing and steady-state thermo-hydraulic studies, pipeline network analysis, production optimization and well performance.

• Thermal Analysis: Is performed to evaluate the optimal thermal management strategy needed to get the right balance between a solid design, cost and operability.

Cont. How can we increase the Process safety?

• Transient Analysis: PME performed detailed analysis of the system’s response to transient operations such as production shutdown, blow-down, turn-down/ramp-up and start-up.

• Slugging Analysis: our slugging solution includes slugging prediction in pipeline/risers and slug-reduction options evaluation.

• Hydrate Management: Develop hydrate prevention philosophy for design and operation procedure.

Cont. How can we increase the Process safety?

THE END

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND ATTAENDANCE