Offshore production experience has proven that sweet oil reservoirs, in course of the production life, gradually turn sour. The main cause of the souring is the creation of the appropriate conditions for Sulphate Reduction Bacteria (SRB's) in the reservoir through (sea) water flooding operations.

This paper provides background information on the parameters driving the souring the potential mitigation methods and addresses the experience with floating production facilities that were designed for sweet crudes, but over their life time were fed with increasingly sour reservoir fluids. The sour gas content of the reservoir fluids not only affects all the systems through which it passes, but also the working environment for personnel on board. Sour Gas (H2S) has a major impact on the safety of the unit. The fact that the average project life time is becoming longer only exacerbates the importance of this subject.

Relatively simple provisions can be added to the design to allow the production facilities to operate safely during its design life.

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