TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractDue to its huge potential, subsea processing has been given increasingly more and more attention by operators and subsea contractors for the last decades. After successful implementation of subsea pumping, extensive technology development work on subsea separation and gas compression solutions and a few pilot installations, subsea processing seems to finally become the important field development element as expected for several years. This has been demostrated by the start-up of the first commercial EPC project for subsea separation during the summer of 2005 at the Tordis field in the North Sea. This is a major milestone for the subsea processing business. An activity of pioneers is now believed to become an important business segment trigging new subsea field developments. This paper presents a summary of the value drivers for subsea processing and it discusses the building blocks required to perform technically feasible and economically viable field developments. Attention is both drawn to subsea separation and gas compression applications. This paper presents typical field development solutions where the use of this technology has been considered. Especial emphasis is made to deep and ultra deep water applications.Furthermore, the paper presents both already qualified technology as well as ongoing and future required technology qualification for necessary building blocks. This to describe the expectation with respect to when different types of subsea processing solutions can be applied in the future.
Subsea separation is an emerging technology that requires new and optimised solutions. A subsea separator should be reliable to ensure successful operation in a wide range of 3-phase flow regimes, without need for maintenance -but still be retrievable in case of unforeseen events. A particular challenge is the associated production of solids that may cause clogging of equipment as well as damage to downstream systems including water injection pumps and water injection wells.To meet the requirements for this application, a concept for subsea separation with integrated handling of solids has been developed. The system utilises state-of-the-art components with excellent experiences from topside applications -but are arranged in a new way to meet the requirements for robustness, flexibility and compactness. This paper is based upon a qualification programme initiated in the first quarter of 2003, covering a field specific subsea produced water separation and solids management system, and describes the work and subsequent results.
The separation process is the heart of the offshore production system. Conventional technology requires massive equipment to allow for required separation of oil, gas, water and sand. Most separation equipment is based on gravity separation principles that require larger retention times and low fluid velocities. These separators have over several years been subject to further development by introduction of new separation principles. Advanced separator internals have been an important contributor in this respect. During the last decade, Inline Separation Technology has successfully been introduced to several applications. Inline Separation is separation in pipe segments instead of within large vessels. Especially separation by use of cyclonic forces has been important. Inline technologies for separation of gas and liquid, oil and water as well as sand from liquid and multiphase streams have been developed and are already used extensively in retrofit applications to increase the performance and capacity of existing offshore production systems. As the inline technology matures, total production systems can be developed based on use of inline separation technology. This will allow for substantially more compact and cost efficient field developments. It will also enable new applications, such as heavy oil and deepwater subsea applications, which are not feasible to develop with conventional technology. This paper gives an overview of the inline separation technology and how this technology can be used to make improvements to offshore production system designs.
Operators can significantly improve hydrocarbon recovery from both Greenfield (new) and Brownfield (existing) reservoirs through the installation of subsea processing systems. Recent and ongoing systems designed for the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, Brazil and North Sea have employed a variety of separator types and sizes. Designs using gravity based separation similar to surface separators and semi-compact separation techniques have been used. As the industry matures in to deeper and higher pressure applications, there is a need for further development of more advanced separation technologies that can provide enhanced performance with improved compactness, and reduced costs. Principles such as high g-forces, pipe separation technologies and electrostatic coalescence are examples of technologies that may enable the design of compact separators. This paper will describe conceptual designs and descriptions of the various subsea processing building blocks utilized to improve the economics of production. It will also give an overview of the fundamental phenomena providing the separation for the various technologies. References are made to various installations to demonstrate how the applied technologies and how field specific parameters can affect the selection of the separation solution. Additionally, sand handling philosophy is discussed and its affect on separation design.
TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractProduction of gas from remote offshore areas requires cost efficient solutions for boosting of the well-stream to maintain satisfactory flow rates throughout the field lifetime. As a result of emerging subsea processing technology, subsea gas compression has matured as a field development building block. The potential benefit of this technology is that it can eliminate the need for surface production facilities and facilitate production from r eservoirs otherwise not seen economically attractive.Development of subsea gas compression solutions is associated with substantial technical challenges. Several key components are well known from surface applications but need to be designed differently to meet the special subsea requirements.Special attention is needed for the design of the compressor and motor unit, control and power distribution system, as well as other process equipment such as for separation, cooling and pumping. All these elements are needed to successfully exploit the full benefits of subsea gas compression.This paper addresses some of the technical challenges associated with subsea gas compression and presents R&D focus for closing the technical gaps.
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