Case studies of hydrate management systems for offshore oil and gas field developments

Abstract

One of the flow assurance challenges for offshore oil and gas production systems is the formation of hydrate. The optimal design and operation need to be fully understood, as hydrate formation causes cost and time for the remediation while suppressing oil and gas production. Various hydrate management systems have been ever applied to offshore fields and they are categorized into three different solution types such as thermal management, chemical injection and operation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a case study of hydrate management system for an offshore oil field development. The case study investigated low pressure operation strategy for the field in Australia with a floating production, storage and offloading facility (FPSO). Dynamic simulation model was developed using a dynamic flow simulator, OLGA to confirm feasibility of the operation.