Globalisation of offshore oil and gas development is taking place and production is moving into ever deeper waters. Subsea production systems are increasingly being pushed into harsher and more remote environments as technology advances. These systems involve high risk and capital investment, requiring safe and reliable technology and high performance equipment. Even if seabed production technology has reached a relatively high level nearly everywhere, many problems persist.
Subsea Production Systems
Problem areas in subsea systems (i) Water quality in field system producing wells (ii) Corrosion and erosion in field systems (iii) Risk associated with sea water lift (iv) Flow assurance – Parafula = place holder picture (ii) Corrosion and erosion in field systems 2 These problems can co-exist and interact with each other in complex ways 2 2...
Produced Fluids from Subsea Wells Treatment
Advancing subsea production systems usage
The use of subsea oil and gas production systems is becoming global in offshore oil and gas fields. Applications, moving some surface or onshore hydrocarbon processing facilities underwater. This is expected to be a game changer that will realize "real" subsea processing of oil and gas, leading to a drastic improvement of recovery rates and prolonged life of oil and gas fields as well.
Selection of Subsea Equipment
Due to the nature of oil and gas production in subsea systems, there are more stringent requirements in matters of reliability and safety of subsea equipment. Furthermore, the severe deep oceanic environment characterized by high pressure and low temperature would also require that the equipment must possess the excellent pressure resistance and corrosion resistance. With the development of offshore oil and gas into deeper water, underwater control systems have experienced the transition from rudimentary direct hydraulic control to current electrohydraulic control. Key elements in this context are the reliability of pipelines and equipment, and the design of safe, reliable, and sensitive control and monitoring systems.
Flow assurance of subsea flowlines is a major concern in offshore oil and gas production. Key challenges include:
Prevention and mitigation of wax deposition; prevention and mitigation of sand deposition; prevention and mitigation of hydrate formation and management; prevention and mitigation of severe slug loading; Development of risk-based shutdown and restart protocols with resulting impacts on system and equipment integrity; Addressing uncertainties existing in the subsea environment; Avoid corrosion of the subsea pipes.
2. Subsea Production Systems Development
The present state of art. To demonstrate the point with reference to some of the current cutting-edge technologies in the subsea production systems: long distance flow assurance, subsea power transmission, and all-electric subsea control, subsea installation technology, reliability and integrity management of subsea systems, and subsea production in polar regions. Such systems are a concrete implementation exploiting multidisciplinary high technologies in a global way, bringing tremendous challenges to the R&D strength from universities as well as the industries.
Offshore oil and gas development has always been a priority for China. With the exploration and development focus extending from the shallow water Bohai Sea to deep water East China Sea, and in particular South China Sea, the role of subsea production system has become increasingly important. Yet most of the key technologies for deep-sea oil and gas development are still owned by foreign companies, while China is short of practical engineering experience and is heavily reliant on foreign technologies. It is necessary to do a great deal of work to realize the independent design of offshore oil and gas field development plans to improve the localization rate of subsea production systems, to raise technological and equipment levels, and to reduce dependence upon imported technology.
3. Suggestions for Future Work
The following steps should be taken to handle these challenges:
Intensive Research on Advanced Subsea Production Systems in Foreign Countries ～ Carry out in-depth research for subsea production system in foreign advanced countries, master the leading technology, and localize it according to the local characteristics, thereby guaranteeing safety and reliability of the advanced systems.
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