Onshore and Offshore Oil and Gas

Pipeline Operations, Maintenance

and Management.

Eng. Alex Buko & Eng. Dustan Mbunga

 Agenda

Course overview and timetable

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 Introduction to flow assurance
Flow assurance history
The term Flow Assurance was first used by Petrobras in the
early 1990s in Portuguese as Garantia do Escoamento
meaning literally “Guarantee of Flow”, or Flow Assurance. In
order to guaranty feasible, safe and cost-effective production
for subsea oil and gas field Flow Assurance needs to covers
a number of special engineering fields and is an extremely
diverse subject matter.

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 Introduction to flow assurance
Flow assurance
Refers to ensuring successful and economical flow of
hydrocarbon stream from reservoir to point of sale .

Primary goals is to ensure production of hydrocarbon in

• Safe
• Reliable
• Operability through the entire life of the field

Developed because of
• Subsea development
• Transportation of unprocessed multiphase flow
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 Introduction to flow assurance
Flow assurance challenges increase
• Sea depth
• Tie-back distance
• Harsh environment
• Complex reservoir fluids

Applied in the all stages of production

• System selection
• Detailed design
• Surveillance
• Troubleshooting operation problems
• Increased recovery.
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 Flow assurance problems
Apart from this high need of ensuring smooth flow of the fluid
during transportation, it is not always possible to have flow
assurance due to many problems

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 Flow assurance control measures
General control measures
• Optimal diameter, route, and number of pipes
• Artificial lift technologies
• Thermal insulation or active heating
• Use of internal pipe coatings
• Active flow control
• Regular use of inhibitors, pour point depressants, or
solvents
• Injection of hydrate inhibitors
• Use of emulsion breakers or foamers /de-foamers in wells
and pipelines
• Pigging
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 Hydrates Formation
Hydrates are crystalline materials similar to ice in structure
which composed water and other guest in the water cage
which formed in temperature greater than ice and pressure
greater than 200 psi in the reservoir fluid system.

Molecules that contribute to hydrates formation are

• Methane (C1) to butane (n-C4), greater than n-C4 are
large to incorporate with water to form hydrates.
• Hydrogen Sulphide H2S,
• Nitrogen N2
• Carbon Dioxide CO2.

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Hydrates Formation

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 Factors for Hydrates Formation
The gas hydrates formation is influenced by the following
primary factors
• The presence of water greater than 50 ppm
• Temperature should below 75 degF
• Pressure greater than 200 psi

Considerations should be taken in system design

parameters: Fluid composition, Operating temperature,
Operating pressure, Amount of produced water, Water depth,
Pipeline distance (offset).

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 Hydrates formation control measures
The industry has various accepted management and
mitigation measures for the hydrates formation includes
• Use of thermodynamic inhibitors: glycols and alcohols.
• Injection of chemicals
• Depressurization of the pipeline/flowline so as to reduce
hydrate freezing point
• Use of dual flow lines so as to enable pigging process in
case of hydrates formation

All of the above methods have economical, physical and

environmental limitations especially in long distance
transportation and offshore.
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 Wax Deposition
Wax are the n-paraffins in the range between n-C20 to C80
or above. Normally Wax form/ deposit when the fluid
temperature falls below cloud point or Wax Appearance
Temperature (WAT). Whenever the paraffins fall below WAT
especially on the wall pipes, the Wax start to deposit.

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 Factors for Wax Deposition
Causes
• Heavy product
• Low temperature (WAT)

Problems
• High viscosity, which leads to pressure losses
• High-yield stress for restarting flow
• Deposition of wax crystals on surfaces

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 Wax deposition mitigation measures
Three categories can be classified for wax deposition
mitigation.
• Thermal: steam- and electrical-heat, thermal insulation,
hot oiling and watering.
• Chemical: solvents, wax Crystal modifiers, dispersants,
Surfactants

• Mechanical: pigging, scrapers and cutters

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 Asphaltenes
Asphaltenes are polar
compounds, which present in
the heaviest fractions of the
crude oil and are defined by
their solubility characteristics.

Cause various problems:

decline in the production rate,
operational problems -
viscosity and emulsion.

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 Slugging
Happens in multiphase flow
in the pipeline where series
of liquid plugs (sludge)
separated by large gas
pockets.

Severe slugging is a
phenomenon occurring in
two-phase flow through a
downward inclined flow line
followed by a vertical riser at
low gas flow rates.
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 Sludge Control
There are several techniques that can be used to mitigate
production slugging,
• Riser base gas-lift system
• Complex detection and control systems
• Use of large slug catchers
• Intelligent slug mitigation systems

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 Scales
Scales develop in the
transportation system as a
result of water forming
deposits, as a crystalline
growth of insoluble salt or
oxides held within the water
component.

This reduce the transport

capacity of flowlines and
potentially cause plugging

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 Scale formation factors
The formation of scale deposits depends on,
• Temperature
• Concentration of scale forming species
• pH
• Water quality
• Hydrodynamic conditions

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 Scale mitigation measures
Scale inhibition mechanism is based on the prevention of
nucleation and salt crystal growth in the solution

There are different types of scale inhibitors for preventing

different kinds of inorganic salt formation; including CaCO3

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 Corrosion
Pipeline corrosion is one of
the main causes of subsea
pipeline failure.

Corrosion categories,
• Oxidation
• Electrical corrosion
• Chemical corrosion

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 Corrosion prevention and mitigation
Prevention
• Use of special resistance alloy
• Chemical inhibitors
• Cathodic protection
• Insulate or coat the anode

Mitigation
• Cleaning and painting
• Remove damaged part from service if severe

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 Erosion
Erosion is mainly caused by
presence of solid particles in the
pipeline.

Sudden change in the flow

direction in elbows leads to
considerable changes in particle
distribution in the flow and
consequently higher erosion rate.

Problems: separation efficiency,

material loss and flow path
blockages 23
 Erosion prevention and mitigation
Sand screens are generally installed in the horizontal
sections of production well bores in order to minimize sand
production.

The erosion predictive technique should include the

mechanisms of kinetic energy imparted by the sand particle
velocity and size, and the angle of the impact on the material
should also be included in the erosion prediction calculations
in order to estimate an accurate erosion rate

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 Emulsion
Tight emulsion occur due to
combination low ambient
temperature and high fluid
viscosity with the inversion of
water

Problems
• Impair separation efficiency
• Loss in the production
• Serious effects to the public
and environment due to high
toxicity
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 Emulsion prevention
In these conditions there may be a need to inject de-
emulsifiers into the subsea facilities and also to ensure that
sufficient pressure is available to re-start the system
following an unplanned shutdown

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 Low Pressure
Low pressure can result to failure of operations and reverse
flow.

Causes
• Friction
• Elevations
• Leaks
• Low flow

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Low pressure prevention and mitigation
Low pressure can be prevented or mitigated by
• Use of frictionless material
• Proper design
• Use of pumps and compressors
• Detect and prevent leaks

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 References
 Muhammad A. T (2018) Fluid Flow Assurance Issues:
Literature Review. SF J Petroleum 2:1.
 3 Moritis, Guntis. Flow assurance challenges production
from deep water, Oil & Gas Journal. Tulsa: Jan 1, (2011).
Vol. 99, Issue 1.
 4 Sloan, E.D et all, 2011. Natural Gas Hydrates in Flow
Assurance. Elservier, New York
 5 Celina Kakitani et all, (2016) Study of Gas Hydrate
formation and deposition mechanism in hydrocarbon
systems.
 6 Muhammad Ali Tayeb. (2017) Study of fluid flow
assurance in hydrocarbon production- investigation wax
mechanisms, London. 29