Deepwater Flow Assurance

26 April 2006 Australasia Branch Evening Meeting

Chairman Dan Franklin, General Manager, Granherne Pty Ltd
Sponsored by Granherne Pty Ltd

Report

Flyer

Flow assurance is one of the major considerations when designing a deepwater development and can have significant knock-on effects to the operational costs if not adequately considered in the design phase. Local service companies provide an overview of the issues associated with deepwater fields and draw on the design practices, systems and management strategies available to address this issue.

Presentations

Subsea Designs and Guidelines for Managing Wax

Dr Bazlee Matzain, Multiphase Solutions Inc (Mustang Engineering Pty Ltd)

Significant deepwater developments continue to be developed worldwide using subsea architecture. As is the case with nearly all upstream oil and gas production systems, flow assurance plays a significant role in asset development. The property of the hydrocarbon fluids and the thermal behaviour of the subsea systems can be more complex and can exacerbate more complex flow assurance problems, such as wax formation. This presentation attempted to describe the design processes and guidelines and operating strategies for the control and remediation of wax precipitation.

Deepwater Gas—What's the Problem?

Dr Julie E P Morgan, Flow Assurance Manager, Granherne Pty Ltd

Gas developments are simple, aren't they? We've been doing them for years Squirt in a bit of methanol if you have to. So what's the big deal when the water gets deeper?

Flow assurance engineers—or maybe 'practitioners' of that 'art'—have been dealing with such comments and questions for a few years. This presentation highlights some of the issues that do create the challenges for deepwater gas developments and presents some possible solutions. Just remember that every development is different, sometimes only subtly, and the right solution for one filed is not directly applicable to the next.

Deepwater Flow Assurance Challenges in Asia-Pacific Fields

Dr Chin E Teh, Flow Assurance Manager (Asia-Pacific), Intec Engineering Pty Ltd

This presentation gave an overview of the flow assurance challenges being faced when moving from shallow water to deepwater oil field developments and highlighted an example of one deepwater field currently being developed in the Asia-Pacific region and its proposed flow assurance management strategy.