Flow Assurance of Hydrocarbon Streams in Subsea Systems

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Introduction Flow assurance of hydrocarbon streams in subsea systems, such as pipelines, is a very important subject in the oil and gas industry. It is diverse and encompasses many branches of engineering disciplines. Flow assurance involves handling many solids deposits from hydrocarbon fluid streams that can form in subsea flow lines. Some of the flow assurance risks in subsea pipelines include gas hydrates, slugging, corrosion, reservoir souring, wax, scales etc. Among these flow assurance risks, hydrate formation is of major concern in the oil and gas industry. Hydrates are solid-crystalline compounds formed when water come into contact with light hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane and propane under thermodynamically, usually high pressure and low temperature. Hence, hydrate readily form in flow lines transporting hydrocarbon streams along with produced water often lead to pressure drop in flow lines and eventually plug flow. Nowadays, offshore oil and gas projects have been moving further into the deeper sea where hydrates are significant problems due to favourable high pressure and low temperature conditions. As a result, deep water flow assurance has become an increasingly major concern for oil and gas industry. The potential formation of hydrates in gas production is of great importance in connection with pipeline transportation of hydrocarbon liquids and with the production of fluids from natural gas or gas condensate reservoirs. Hydrate formation during oil and gas production can plug production facilities and cause a long-term problem to oil and gas project. According to Dholabhal et al. (1993), the accumulation of hydrates is common in the horizontal sections and around fittings could lead to disastrous pipeline blo... ... middle of paper ... ...nd Control of Natural Gas Hydrates”. European Offshore Petroleum Conference and Exhibition, London, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Paper 8137, October 24-27 1978. 31. Yousif M.H. “The Kinetics of Hydrate Formation”. Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, LA, USA, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Paper 28479, September 25-28 1994. 32. Jassim E., Abdi M.A., and Muzychka Y. A CFD-Based Model to Locate Flow Restriction Induced Hydrate Deposition in Pipelines. Offshore Technology Conference, OTC 19190. 2008 33. Lysne D. “An Experimental Study of Hydrate Plug Dissociation by Pressure Reduction” Ph.D. Thesis, Norwegian Institute of Technology, University of Trondhiem, 1995. 34. Viana F., Garcia-Hernadez A., and Supak K. “Hydrate Formation and Slugging Assessment of an Offshore Gas Field”. Pipe Simulation Interest Group annual meeting, (PSIG 1327). 2013

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