ENM202 Facilities

Transportation
 Transportation

• Part A
– Transportation of reservoir fluids (Multiphase) to
processing unit (sub-sea or surface)

• Part B
– Transportation of processed fluids (single phase) to
market
Transportation of reservoir Fluids

• From Wellhead to processing unit

• Multiphase
• Sub-sea or surface
• Surface – short distances to gathering stations
• Sub-sea – via sub-sea manifolds to risers
Family of Sub Sea Pipelines
Alternative Subsea Configurations

Manifold Wellhead/XmasTree
 Sub-sea Elements

• Flowline – transport reservoir fluids to processing unit

• Manifold – Collects different streams of flow from various
wellheads
• Umbilical – Supply control fluids/electrical supply to operate
valves/instrumentation
• Risers – Pipes connecting sub-sea elements to surface elements
(rigid or flexible)
Subsea Developments • 1st Subsea development
• Shell/Esso
• Cormorant UMC
• Installed 1982
• Still in production
Subsea Elements

• Modern Subsea Manifolds:

 Subsea Umbilical
• Umbilical:
– Used to provide services from host to field
– Integrated bundle of ‘cores’ wrapped together
– Control fluid to move valves
– Power for instruments & gauges
– Signal cables
– Chemicals
• Hydrate inhibition
• Corrosion inhibiton
• Scale inhibition
• Wax/asphaltenes
• H2S scavenger
• Etc.
 Flow Assurance challenges
• Why not transport reservoir fluids in pipelines to shore?
• Flow assurance problems caused by “three phase flow” and
pressure/temperature reductions restricts the length by
which fluids can be transported by subsea pipelines
• Issues include: wax deposition, asphaltene precipitation,
hydrate formation, scale deposition, slug flow &
corrosion/erosion.
 What is “Flow Assurance”?
• It is to make sure that the reservoir products get to the
processing facility and the processed products get to their
destination without hindrance.
• Term was coined by Petrobras in early 1990’s – “Garantia de
Fluxo” – Guarantee the flow”
 Flow Assurance - Concerns
• Pipeline’s effective internal
diameter reduced by
Hydrates, Wax, Asphaltene
or Scale deposition
• Severe slugging of the
multiphase fluids leading to
damaging the separator
• Separator flooded by fluids
• Well dies due to inability to
lift the fluids
• Loss of flow rate in pipeline
due to pressure losses in
pipeline
• Corrosion causing pipeline or
wellbore to rupture
 Hydrates

• Methane gas and water

reacts to form ice-like
structure
• Happens at high pressure
and temperature well
above freezing point of
water
• Prevention by additive
injection
• Mono Ethylene Glycol,
Ethanol, Methanol
 Hydrate prevention
• Introduction of thermodynamic
inhibitors such as adding salts,
glycol or other chemical inhibitors
to reduce the amount of free
water.
• Thermal insulation such as pipe-
in-pipe or electrical heating of the
flowline.
 Wax

• Oils contain wax molecules

which may form wax
particles at low
temperature
• Prevention by increasing
temperature of pipeline
• Regular pigging – Flowline?
 Asphaltene

• Material that is insoluble in n-

pentane at a dilution of 40 parts
alkane to 1 part crude oil
• Re-dissolves in Toluene
• More likely in heavier oil
 Scale deposition
• Likely in produced water system
• Deposition of inorganic minerals
from brine
• CaSO4, SrSO4, BaSO4 & CaCO3
• MEG and Corrosion inhibitors may
cause scale formation.
• Trade off between corrosion
protection (high pH) and scale
control (low pH)
 Slugging

• Liquid flows intermittently

• Severe slugging in flowlines
result in unstable flow.
• Long distance tie-back
increases the likelihood
 Corrosion
• Degradation of material
• Loss of wall thickness
resulting in leakage
• Build up of corrosion
products resulting in
partial blockage
• Increase in friction leading
to pressure loss
 Length restictions
• Flowline length for transportation of unprocessed fluids
from:
– Oil reservoir
• <35 km (ETAP – North Sea) (2004)
• Penguin to Brent Charlie – 65 km (2009)
– Gas reservoir
• Mensa GoM - 110 km
• Snohvit (Norway) – 140 km (2007)
• Why is the length of unprocessed gas flowline longer than
an unprocessed oil pipeline?
 Sub sea tie-back
• Many fields in the North Sea classed as marginal

• Building new production facilities is too expensive

• Subsea tie-back to existing infrastructure (which may extend the life of the
existing structure

• North sea has extensive existing infrastructure

• Many undeveloped satellite reservoirs are within 30 km of existing

structures
 Subsea to Shore
• Subsea development
• Long pipeline tieback to land
• Processing facilities onshore
• Examples:
– Shell Corrib
– Shell Ormen Lange
– Total Laggan/Tormore
– No people offshore – big risk reduction
• Can be simpler & cheaper to construct facilities on
land
 Sub-sea Elements

• Booster Pumps – multi-phase pumps

• Compressors – Used in gas fields

• Separator – Three-phase separator

Sub-sea boosting
Possible to increase flowline distances
by boosting pressure using Multi-
phase pumps (under development)
• Multiphase pumping
Subsea Processing
– Established technology
– Used to reduce backpressure on reservoir to increase production
• Long tie-back
• Hyrdrostatic head – e.g. in Gulf of Mexico
– Can pump gas/liquid mixture up to 95% gas volume fraction
– CHALLENGE: Supplying MW power over long distance

• Next step is ‘wet gas compression’ to allow higher GVF to be processed

– Technically mature – FRAMO/Bornemann
– Not yet commercially deployed
 Subsea Separation
• Next step
– Dry gas compression pilot for Ormen Lange:
• Not commercially deployed

•First commercially installed subsea

– Statoil Tordis: separation system
•Water separated out & reinjected at
wellsite
 Tordis
Subsea
separation
 Transportation of processed fluids
to point of sale

• Over long distances

– Crude oil tankers

• Over shorter distances

– Pipelines
Pipelines
 Pipeline Design

Five major factors:

1. Route selection
2. Material specification
3. Structural and stability design
4. Construction
5. Protection
Pipeline Design
 Pipeline Design Process
• Iterative process
• Information required
– Flow rate
– Chemical composition of fluid
– Expected temperature of fluid
• Inspection design process
• Pigging philosophy
• Future usage of pipeline – manifolds, branches
etc.
 Bubble Point

• When a liquid is being transported via a pipeline it is

important to maintain the pressure in the pipeline ABOVE
its BUBBLE POINT
• When heating or lowering the pressure of a liquid
consisting of two or more components, the BUBBLE
POINT is the point where the first bubble of vapour is
formed
 Pipeline Design

• Crude oil pipelines – land lines

Large diameter with small pressure drop or small

diameter with large pressure drop

Need to maintain pressure ABOVE Bubble Point

Need to strike an economic balance

 Pipeline pressure drop

• Pressure will drop

along the length of
the pipe
• The smaller the
diameter, the greater
the pressure drop
• Pressure should be
maintained above the
Bubble Point (BP)
Pipeline pressure drop
 Transportation

• Pumping stations
– Number depends on line size and flow
through put
– Centrifugal pumps are generally chosen
 Major
Pipelines
Location of Pumping stations
 Crude Oil Tankers

• Choice of export options – tankers or pipelines is mainly

economical
• Large amount of oil is transported by sea
– About 50% of the cargo on ships at sea is oil
• Largest hazard of sea transportation is disasters resulting
in spills.
• Latest improvement – double hull tankers
Double hull tankers
 Tankers
• Over 7000 oil tankers in use – average age 18
years
• Oil stored in separate tanks
• Vapour space above liquid is filled with inert
gas – exhaust gases from the ship
• Route of tankers controlled by the size of the
various major canals
 Size, Classification and Canal
Capacity Area usage

Ultra large crude carriers over 320,000 Open sea

(ULCC) DWT only

Very large crude carriers over 200,000 Open sea

(VLCC) DWT only

Suez max, 1m barrel oil 120,000 Suez

tanker to199,999 DWT Canal

Aframax tankers 80,000 to

120,000 DWT

Panamax dry bulk 60,000 to Panama

carrier 79,999 DWT Canal

Panamax tanker 50,000 to Panama

79,999 DWT Canal
 Liquid Natural Gas

• Gas has been difficult to transport, hence was treated as waste

product until 1970’s

• Transported in two liquid forms

– LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) – Methane - Boiling Point at -161ºC
– LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) – Propane, Butane at -43ºC

• Require very efficient insulation

LNG Tanker
 LNG Tankers

• Needed if producer is too far away from market

• Hence, low LNG production in USA and Europe
• If producers are near the market it is cheaper to
build a pipeline.
 Forties Pipeline - Subsea

• Original pipeline 32”

• Replaced in 1990 by 36”
• Original pipeline blanked off and filled with inhibited
water
• 169 kilometres to Cruden bay
• Operating pressure – 129 bar (1,870 psi)
Forties Pipeline - Land

• 36” line from Cruden bay to Kinneil, 209 kilometres

away
• Four pumping stations
• Processing in Kinneil and storage at Dalmeny
• Offloading crude oil at Hound Point – Firth of Forth
• Liquid Propane and Butane offloaded at Grangemouth
Water Depth
Number of Projects Pipe laying operations
in feet

1998 1999 %

0 - 99 126 159 35

100 – 299 170 182 40

300 – 599 66 55 12

600 – 999 12 6 1

1000 + 50 34 8

Not Recorded 10 14 3

Total 434 450 100

Worldwide Pipe Installation > 10”
(in Miles)
Pipelines by Size and Depth
 Future Project
• South Asian Gas Enterprise (SAGE)
Pipeline
• Transport Qatar Gas from Oman to
India – 1.1 BSDFD
• 610 mm ID line
• 1300 Km - subsea
• Water depth 3000m
• Cross two continental slopes
• Earthquake subduction zone
• Outfall debris of the river Indus fan
• Projected completion 2017
• Projected cost $3.5 Billion