The flow assurance challenges of the Ormen Lange development are significant. Being one of the largest and longest subsea tie-ins worldwide, Ormen Lange has some very specific challenges. Among these are deep-water conditions, including very rough seabed, low ambient temperatures, being fairly constantly –1oC around the subsea templates, not to speak of long multiphase transport of unprocessed well fluid, requiring specific attention to liquid hold-up management.
There has been special focus on flow assurance topics in the project ever since it started, and the need to develop an advanced on-line simulator was identified at an early stage. Its main objectives are to become an on-line monitoring and guidance tool available for operators in the Central Control Room (CCR). It is also intended to become an accurate and reliable control system for well production and MEG injection. It is further aimed to be an on-line monitoring and analysis tool for flow assurance specialists. Finally, it shall become a production planning and validation tool.
The Ormen Lange Flow Assurance Simulator (FAS) contains five different system applications and four execution modes, whereas two of them are continuously running. During the detailed design phase, initiated simultaneously with contract award, many problems were discussed and innovative solutions found in the project, described throughout the paper.
