With the continuing increase in marginal field developments particularly in the North Sea, the pressure continues to minimise costs. There has been a continuous trend towards unmanned facilities to capitalise on reduced operating and first costs.

This article reviews the current remote processing facilities utilised offshore with particular emphasis on subsea hardware, process and utility equipment and control and communication systems.

The key element to the further use of unmanned systems is the reliability of process equipment. This article analyses the reliability of process and utility systems utilised in offshore oil and gas processing and projects future unmanned facilities scenarios.

Keywords:
application, operation, processing facility, platform, requirement, recovery, processing scheme, availability, test separator, offshore
Subjects:
Pipelines, Flowlines and Risers, Offshore Facilities and Subsea Systems, Risers, Subsea processing
Copyright 1986, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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