In every oil and gas field development project, especially when moving into deep water and/or long tieback distances in harsh environments, flow assurance is of crucial importance in order to define a robust, reliable development concept which will ensure security of supply during the whole production phase. There are, however, several parameters which affect flow assurance. The value of these parameters is usually associated with uncertainty, especially in the early phase of the project, as in the concept definition/concept selection phase, and this will inevitably bring uncertainty into the flow assurance analysis.
This paper, together with ref (2), describes a methodology which has been developed by Shtokman Development AG in conjunction with SPT Group in order to facilitate a systematic way of studying the risk picture and identifying the major risk contributors in a general flow assurance project. Application of the method on the ultra-long 550 km two-phase flow trunk line from the Shtokman Field to shore is illustrated.
