Abstract
Offshore oil and gas fields have gained tremendous importance for the world's energy supply. Our ability to tap into these reserves is one of the main reasons that the predictions of the "Club of Rome" in 1972 about diminishing hydrocarbon reserves and "limits to growth" turned out to be pessimistic.
As the transport of oil and gas products in a multiphase manner is increasingly stretched over greater distances with development in more hostile environments, especially when designing large-scale ultra-deepwater production network, it is mandatory to ensure sustaining reliable and robustness operations as the access to subsea infrastructure becomes increasingly limited and to reduce the influence on the downstream facilities.
An integrated multiphase dynamic model was used to optimize operating procedures for initial well clean-up and ramp-up to production from a sizeable deepwater production system before first gas. This approach was essential to create and test start-up scenarios given several well and reservoir uncertainties.
On the other hand, the transient analysis was performed to optimize the system's time-dependent operations, e.g., 215 KM pipelines start-up and shutdown; production Ramp-up; maximum no-touch time without hydrates; Depressurization of the network to remove hydrates and ensure flaring system adequacy; Optimized well routing; and Hydrodynamic slugging. All the simulations accounted for the uncertainty of the associated controlling parameters.
In this paper, we will present how we developed the integrated model. We will show how we used the simulation as a guidance tool to develop appropriate procedures for different transient operations. The framework presented here applies to any similar deepwater field with extra-long tie-back. This model is a handy tool not only for engineering simulation but for operator training and real-time surveillance as well.