Flow Assurance: What has the industry learned over

the last 30 years

Thursday 28th March 2019

Pitfodels Suite
Norwood Hall Hotel
Aberdeen

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 09:00 Registration

09:30 Steve Sasanow

09:45 Twenty-five Years of Evolving Flow Assurance Integration within Subsea Field
Development

Over the past twenty-five years flow assurance analysis has become fully integrated
within the field development process. Detailed flow modelling is now routinely used
throughout the engineering design cycle. This has significantly improved the
predictions of data relied on for subsea operability design. The availability of accurate
modelled data during the early design phase has allowed engineers to reliably predict
and optimise production across the field life and to quantify the risk of flow assurance
problems.

Advances in data collection, assessment and modelling now allow reliable integrated
production modelling from the reservoir through to the receiving facilities. Software
Murray Anderson can accurately assess operating scenarios at both normal steady flowing conditions
Flow Assurance and transient conditions. By doing so, engineers can now fully understand the system
Director behaviour and optimise designs before a development comes on-stream.
Crondall Energy
The results of early and detailed design phase simulations allow engineers to develop
robust integrated operating strategies which mitigate against flow instabilities and
manage the risk of flow restrictions and blockages.

The recent development of web based interfaces linked to online monitoring has
allowed flow assurance analysis to be further integrated into the production
management of operating fields. Online monitoring tools have been used to deliver a
real time picture of parameters that cannot be easily measured directly, allowing
operators to take the correct actions in a timely manner to ensure flow assurance and
operability issues are avoided.

A summary of the progress is identifying, analysing and accounting for flow assurance
challenges over the last twenty-five years is presented, along with a discussion of the
impact this has had on the subsea upstream industry.

Murray Anderson is the Technical Lead for Subsea Field Development Engineering and
Flow Assurance for Crondall Energy. Murray has been a Subsea and Pipeline
Engineering Consultant since 1995, prior to which he was a University Lecturer in
Mechanical and Offshore Engineering.

Murray has extensive experience of subsea system thermo-hydraulic simulation using

commercial tools such as PIPESIM and OLGA for multiphase flow simulations. He has
also developed bespoke thermo-hydraulic analysis techniques for field development
engineering, and is a specialist in subsea heat transfer. He has worked on numerous

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 subsea concept development studies, addressing option selections, field layouts,
equipment configurations and cost screening.

Murray is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical

Engineers.

10:15 Flow Assurance… Escaping the Constraints

Due to the high capital expenditure, high environmental risk, uncertainty in operating
conditions and harsh operating environments associated with offshore oil and gas
developments, the design of offshore oil and gas systems are inherently not
commercially viable, leaving millions of barrels of oil trapped below the surface.

Many of the prohibitive margins applied to subsea systems result from a lack of
understanding of the physics behind oil and gas production, and even more so from a
lack of understanding between oil and gas disciplines.

This presentation will discuss how a better understanding and integration between
Conor Sherrard production chemistry and flow assurance, along with better integration between
Senior Flow Assurance design and operations, is enabling the removal of prohibitive design margins without
Engineer compromising the safety and reliability of operations. Examples will be presented of
Assured Flow projects around the globe where the application of a deeper knowledge of flow
Solutions assurance has driven projects to FID.

Conor is a Senior Engineer with London based oil and gas consulting company Assured
Flow Solutions and is responsible for the delivery of integrated flow assurance and
production chemistry projects. He has worked in the oil and gas industry for 7 years in
the areas of field development, process and flow assurance engineering, having
previously worked in consulting roles at Wood and Schlumberger in Western Australia.
Conor has a diverse range of experience which includes working on both oil and gas
dominated systems in Australia, South East Asia, the North Sea and Africa.

10:45 Coffee

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 11:15 OGTC Marginal Developments – The Flow Assurance Challenge

In the UK North Sea there are more than 300 known but unsanctioned and
undeveloped “small pools” of oil and gas. In total, they contain a total of more than 3
billion barrels, which represents a significant prize for UK Plc, if ways to develop them
economically can be found.

There are a number of technical and economic reasons why many small pools have
not yet been developed. Through its Marginal Developments initiatives, the Oil & Gas
Technology Centre (OGTC) is looking for ways to make as many of these discoveries
Niki Chambers economically and technically viable.
Project Manager –
Marginal Flow assurance is a key part of the challenge and one of the areas of focus within all
Developments the initiatives.
OGTC
The OGTC is working with the operators, the supply chain and technology developers
to provide solutions that will meet the industry needs and requirements. The OGTC
co-funds projects to develop and deploy new technology in the UKCS.

The Marginal Developments solution centre has a number of projects undergoing or

progressing towards field trial, with a number of opportunities and ideas currently
being developed. The adorption of these technologies will not only benefit these
undeveloped small pools but have application in the wider brown and greenfield
activities.

The presentation will provide an overview of the technologies that have a specific flow
assurance focus and will share the areas of success and where getting engagement
from the end user has been more problematic. The presentation will also discuss what
is still to be addressed and the flow assurance challenges that require new or
improved technologies.

Niki is a Project Manager in the Marginal Developments Solution Centre at the OGTC.
Niki has over 25 years experience in subsea engineering and is a specialist in
production and flow assurance. She has held technical and management roles in a
number of engineering companies prior to joining the OGTC.

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 11:45 The hidden truth about subsea multiphase boosting

The first subsea multiphase boosting system was installed in 1994 and is today a
proven technology with a global track record. In addition to bringing increased
production and recovery, multiphase boosting may also reduce flow assurance issues,
reduce project CAPEX and OPEX, improve operability and safety as well as reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions when compared to the often defaulted gas lift. However,
subsea boosting is still far from being the standard artificial lift method for subsea
field developments, and the industry may lack a complete overview and an approach
to uncovering and quantifying the actual value. This paper summarizes the different
aspects of subsea artificial lift using experience from the more than 30 installations
and provides a value-based approach to uncovering the true value of subsea
Morten Stenhaug multiphase boosting.
VP Production
Technology Morten Stenhaug is today Vice President Integrated Solutions and Production in
OneSubsea OneSubsea. After graduating he spent 15 years with various oil companies, including
Schlumberger Statoil and Hydro, now Equinor, working within Petroleum Technology, Completions,
Subsea and Flow Assurance and was also managing field development design,
production optimization and field operations. He joined Schlumberger in 2006 to help
build the Schlumberger subsea business. He is today heading the integrated field
development business of OneSubsea with a global organization of field development
experts that are passionate about adding value to field developments and helping
clients meet their investment decision criteria.

Morten has a degree from the Norwegian Institute of Technology and Science with a
Master’s in Petroleum Technology. While his home country is Norway, he is currently
based out of Houston.

12:15 Challenges to Traditional Wax Management Approaches

Wax management is a key risk issue that Flow Assurance engineers must address
within overall field development design and the management of assets.

A key factor to this is a firm understanding of the behaviour of wax across expected
operating ranges and how this may influence the decisions taken, and constraints
placed upon the operating asset.

Often, we see wax properties of fluids condensed to a table within a Basis of Design
which shows little of the expected behaviour and places potentially heavy
conservatisms on the design approach, possibly leading to expensive decisions
Jacqueline Geddes-
relating to thermal management of your system and operations intervention
Smith
requirements being set out for wax management across the life of the asset.
Production Assurance
Manager How can we challenge this basis to provide enhanced guidance on the behaviour of
Xodus wax within pipelines and to challenge the operating philosophies in place as a means
of design and operability optimisation?

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 Jacqueline Geddes-Smith is the Production Assurance Manager for Xodus in Scotland
and a Principal Flow Assurance Consultant. She has over 18 years of industry
experience providing support to a range of UK and international clients, covering the
project lifecycle. With involvement in a number of high level concept studies,
Jacqueline also has extensive experience in the Front End and Execute project stages
as well as experience in operations support and latterly, decommissioning. She has
proven experience in the delivery of solutions to complex flow problems and in
determination of Flow assurance issues, and the integration of the requirements for
mitigation or management of these within overall design and operations contexts.

12:45 Lunch

13:30 OGTC – Pseudo Dry Gas: West of Shetland Gathering system for stranded pools –
Project Update

An update of the ongoing study to consider the economic impact of applying the
innovative Pseudo Dry Gas technology to stranded gas fields the West of Shetland
making a gas gathering corridor stretching 200km and 1.6km deep.

Due to laws of physics and multiphase flow, subsea tie back systems have been
generally limited to around 100km as a single pipeline or 140km as duel pipelines after
which the production plateaus are shortened and increasing amounts of reserves
remain in the ground. This is primarily due to increasing back-pressures within the
Andy Robertson gathering system generated by a combination of increasing frictional and gravitational
Field Developments pressure drops. The gravitational pressure drop is due to increasing liquid hold up
Manager (liquid content in the pipeline) condensed from the gas as it is transported, this results
Advisian in a regressive cycle feeding into ever lower returns for the developer the further the
subsea tie-back is extended. Therefore once this threshold has been passed, there is
a step change in costs for the development in the order of US$100’s millions for
energy companies.

Pseudo Dry Gas system dramatically reduces pressure drop within multiphase
pipeline allowing significantly longer and deeper gas tieback, without impact to
recoverable reserves. All this while typically lowering operational Co2 emissions by
100k + tonnes / year.

Andy is a production assurance specialist with 25 years’ experience in the up-stream

oil and gas business and was one of the founders of Ingen, which is now part of
Advisian.

Andy’s expertise covers reservoir, subsea pipeline, topsides facility and export design,
operation and economics. He has supported many projects from the feasibility stage
through detailed design to offshore hook up, commissioning and start-up. This skill
set and range of experience together with the tools and methods developed by Ingen
means that he is able to quickly identify the optimum field development solutions.

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 Andy’s experience has developed over a large number of marginal fields where his skill
set facilitates an integrated and holistic approach helping to unlock the value in these
developments often requiring innovative technology and approaches. Doing this
requires a detailed appreciation of all aspects of the development covering subsurface,
subsea, topsides and commercial. Since the year 2000, this approach has been
consistently successful in its application with Ingen having successfully supported the
development of over 20 fields for clients in the UK and overseas.

14:00 Identifying and characterising Flow Assurance Issues with the world’s only field
proven subsea CT scanner

Flow assurance specialists have long faced the challenge of maintaining continuous
flow throughout subsea pipelines. Over time, deposits can build up - leading to
potential blockages, restricted production and ultimately a shortfall in revenue. When
these issues arise, operators are faced with the problem of determining the exact
location, extent and nature of the build-up / blockage, without risking damage to the
pipeline, or making the blockage worse by improper corrective action.

Mike Banks Research indicates that 50-80% of remediation attempts fail first time. This is largely
Business Development due to a limited knowledge of exactly where, what and how much material is causing
Manager the blockage. Attempting remediation more than once at least doubles the cost, and
Tracerco whilst there is lack of full knowledge of what the blockage is, or the extent of it, the
second, third or fourth remediation could still fail.

This presentation will illustrate how through the use of CT scanning, operators can
pinpoint exactly where a blockage is in a pipeline, how much there is, and identify the
nature of the material in real time, without any interruption to production of normal
pipeline operations. The presentation will also discuss a real case example of where
CT scanning was used to provide critical flow assurance information to an operator,
allowing them to formulate an appropriate remediation plan.

Mike has over 30 years’ experience in the offshore industry and is one of Tracerco’s
experts in subsea applications. Starting out as an assistant field engineer, Mike has
progressed through the ranks, holding senior field engineer roles before moving onto
project engineering and management. Mike is now a Business Development Manager
for Tracerco’s Measurement Insights business. Mike has a BEng(Hons) degree and is a
member of the Institute of Diagnostic Engineers.

14:30 Afternoon break

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 15:00 Improving subsea temperature sensors reading accuracy, a review of previous
projects findings using CFD at Wood
Christophe Meynet
Senior CFD Consultant With the constant request of productivity increase, Flow assurance engineer are often
Wood PLC confronted to new type of problems. The main task of Flow Assurance engineer is the
delivery of hydrocarbon to processing and transformation infrastructure while the
process engineer tasks are to optimise the treatment of the fluid. In order to achieve
this task the engineers will rely on the different measurement devices located
throughout the subsea equipment. Therefore, accurate temperature and pressure
readings during the subsea production are one of the key parameter In order to
optimise the hydrocarbon production. Those measurements are the only information
available to the flow assurance and production engineers. Inaccurate reports can lead
to bad decisions which can jeopardise the integrity of the equipment, fluid
temperature being above the equipment temperature specification for instance.

In addition, the production will evolve during the life of the field and the flow regime
within the equipment can significantly change between the early life and the end of
life of the field. Therefore, measurement equipment should be able to manage the
change of flow regime and still deliver accurate readings

The author will demonstrate based on an extensive CFD analysis how the flow regime
and the sensor design can significantly affect the temperature readings. Different
flow regime such as stratified, annular or intermittent will be investigated and the
transient response of the sensor will be analysed based on the position and the design
of the senor and the surrounding structure. Comparison with field measurement will
be also presented when available.

15:30 Gas Hydrate Management in the Digital Era

Of the 4 components required to form hydrates (Pressure, Temperature, Water and

Gas) only 2 are typically monitored in real-time to determine the risk of hydrates
blockage. The other two are provided for by applying contingencies and high safety
margins to hydrates management strategies.

Advances have been made in the management of gas hydrates, but the industry still
relies predominantly on simulating pipeline flow characteristics and lacks critical real-
time information the parameters which require to be monitored; especially
information on the changing characteristics of the gas and aqueous phases.

Blue Gentoo has a system which accurately predicts the formation of gas hydrates,
Andy Brown assesses current safety margins and calculates the most effective and cost-efficient
C.O.O. way to manage gas hydrates risks, while controlling chemical injection to optimise
Blue Gentoo Ltd inhibition while avoiding process upsets.

This offers major benefits for operators looking to adopt a risk-based approach to gas
hydrate management or to reduce the quantity of chemicals injected into their
systems and the consequences thereof.

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 Andy Brown has a long career in production optimisation with major service
companies in the UK and overseas (Weatherford, Schlumberger and Expro). He has
held roles in product development, business development, technical support and
customer relationship management. He has helped bring new technology to the
market and specifically digital software solutions. His focus is on identifying target
customers, developing relationships and ensuring excellent customer service.

16:00 Close

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