Active Heating Technologies For Flowlines In Deep Water Field Developments Available to Purchase

Deep and ultra deep water developments are characterized by very low ambient temperatures, high pressures in the production lines and difficult access for diagnosis or repair. In this context, the overall objective of flow assurance is to insure uninterrupted flow of production from subsea reservoirs to host facilities and particularly to avoid the formation of deposit of solid components (hydrates or wax) which could lead to plugging of flowlines during operations as well as shutdowns Among other solutions like chemical inhibition or separation of hydrate-forming components, active heating of flowlines can be used to prevent or even remediate hydrate formation and wax deposit by keeping the fluid at a temperature higher than critical temperatures. Active heating technologies can even be enabling for some demanding applications such a very long tie-backs (longer than 20km) or difficult oils (high WAT). Direct Electrical Heating of wet insulated pipeline has been deemed more mature and robust than any other heating technology as it has already been implemented on several projects in shallow waters of North Sea and West of Africa. This paper aims at discussing the feasibility of the adaptation of DEH system - including a pipeline and a piggyback cable - to deepwater applications. Effective solutions have hence been developed to enable safe J-Lay installation. Suitable installation methods and recommendations will be detailed in this paper