Classification: Internal Status: Draft

Tordis: Concept for handling of Sand and Water

Technology Qualification, construction,

start up and operation
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Tordis - Existing facilities

• 9 sub sea wells, 6 water injection slots and two production flowlines 11 km to
GFC platform

• Mature field – in operation since 1994- producing from 4 reservoirs.

• Water depth appr. 200m , water injection for pressure maintenance

TORDIS 2000-2005
Pressure falling ,water & sand rate
increasing.
Production decline – investments
required!!!
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SSBI – subsea production plant

Tordis subsea facilities

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SSBI design
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Normal operation
Separator jetting
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Desander emptying
Normal operation
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Construction
• Maintenance subsea was regarded as virtually infeasible
• Critical equipment was duplicated or built as retrievable modules
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SSBI i Tønsberg før levering

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Desander and separator; Level instruments

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Water flow meter and choke

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Technology qualification
• Several areas of the system required qualification of technology
– New application of known technology
– Limited access,
– Limited instrumentation
• Key technology elements
– Separation efficiency with scale and sand tolerant design
– Sand jetting
– Sand separation
– Sand transfer
– Sand tolerant pumps and valves
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Separator Jetting
• Two systems for sand jetting, TORE units and fluidisation nozzles, have been
tested
• Combination of the two showed best performance
• The separator has been equipped with both systems
• ROV operated valves allow combined operation (normal) or operation with
TORE units only
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Separator desanding
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Small scale test rig

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Large scale test setup

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Large scale test setup

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Sand accumulation from simulated 1 week

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One week of sand accumulation

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TORE principle sketches

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Combination of jetting nozzles and TORE

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Sand prior to test of sand removal

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Sand after test of TORE units only

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Limit of reach for TORE unit

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Desanding using both jet nozzles and TORE

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Desander performance testing

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Desander emptying
• Transfer of sand from desander has been demonstrated
• Some residual sand will remain
• The time to empty desander has been shown to be 40 mins
• In the real installation empty desander will be determined by level profiler
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Separated sand
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Emptying of desander vessel

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Residual sand in desander vessel

Approximately
0.5 m3 of sand
will remain in
desander after
”emptying”

This illustrates
the benefits of
fluidising nozzles
in the separator
Even at more
than twice design
sand content the
vessel could be
emptied
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Residual sand distribution in desander

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Desander full scale sand transfer test in Tønsberg

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Sand tolerance test water injection pump

• Flow rate 300 m3/hr
• 500 hours of 20ppm sand
• 500 hours of 200 ppm sand
• 500 hours of 2000ppm sand
• Total of 276 tons

• Sand for an new beach at Fusa

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Experience from commissioning and start-up

• There will always be surprises
• Various versions of ABB control systems operating together proved a greater
challenge than anyone expected
• Injection well performance was poor from day one.
– Not related to oil or sand in the produced water
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High voltage cable proved to be a gas producer

Splice had to be replaced by nitrogen purged junction box