Description

Designed for you, if you are...

• A manager
• A petroleum, production, drilling or reservoir engineer
• An operations, completion, well intervention or conceptual design engineer
• A geologist or petrophysicist
• A professional involved in the design, operation, and management of oil and gas production facilities, especially those working on new onshore, subsea, and deepwater developments

How we build your confidence

• Professionally designed slides enhanced with animations and relevant video content
• Real-world case studies
• Interactive discussions

The benefits from attending

• The importance of flow assurance in reducing or eliminating bottlenecks (pressure losses), preventing well and facility issues, and improving asset HSE and longevity
• The nature and impact of waxes, asphaltenes, emulsions, scale, hydrates, bacteria and corrosion on production, safety, asset management and overall economics
• The various uses and operational benefits of production chemicals in the oilfield and their role in optimising production and asset performance

Topics

• Definition and importance: ensuring uninterrupted flow from reservoir to market, maintaining production reliably, economically, and safely
• Historical context: origin of flow assurance as a discipline (Petrobras, early 1990s)
• Scope: thermal hydraulics, production chemistry issues (hydrates, slugging, wax, scales, asphaltenes, corrosion, emulsions, etc.)
• Key elements: fluid properties (PVT), fluid flow & heat transfer, solid deposition, corrosion/erosion
• Domains: production chemistry, production engineering, surveillance & operations
• Workflow: from exploration and appraisal through design, construction, and production phases. Importance of flow assurance considerations at each stage
• Risk assessment: General definitions and Introduction to identifying and evaluating potential flow assurance risks

• Reservoir types and drive mechanisms
• Sampling techniques (downhole, surface recombination, and inline): proper methods for collecting representative fluid samples.
• Importance of accurate fluid characterization: sampling and testing during field development and operational support
• PVT Properties and phase behaviour: understanding phase diagrams, bubble point, dew point, critical point, compositional analysis
• Fluid characterisation: equation of state (EOS) models (e.g., Peng-Robinson, SRK)
• PVT lab analysis: overview of common PVT experiments (e.g., constant composition expansion, differential liberation, constant volume depletion, separator tests)

• Single-phase and multiphase flow: flow patterns in horizontal and vertical pipes (e.g., bubbly, slug, churn, annular), holdup, pressure drop, and modelling
• Multiphase flow correlations: introduction to commonly used correlations for pressure drop and holdup prediction (e.g., Beggs and Brill, Duns and Ros, Petroleum Expert, etc.)
• Flow regime maps: using flow regime maps to predict flow behaviour in pipes
• Erosion velocity: calculating erosion velocity to prevent erosion damage

• Multiphase thermal hydraulic simulation: steady-state and transient analysis
• Slug prediction and management: hydrodynamic slugging, terrain slugging, riser-induced slugging
• Slug mitigation strategies: choke control, slug catchers, operational procedures
• Pressure surge analysis: water hammer effect, causes, and mitigation techniques
• Heat transfer principles: conduction, convection, and radiation in subsea pipelines
• Insulation materials: different types and selection criteria for insulation materials to minimise heat loss

• Fundamentals of hydrate formation: thermodynamics and kinetics of hydrate formation
• Hydrate phase equilibrium: understanding hydrate formation curves
• Hydrate prevention strategies: thermodynamic inhibitors (e.g., methanol, MEG), low dosage hydrate inhibitors (LDHIs), anti-agglomerates
• Active heating: electric heating, hot oil circulation
• Dehydration: removing water to prevent hydrate formation
• Pressure reduction: depressurisation as a hydrate control method
• Hydrate Remediation: methods for dissolving or removing existing hydrate plugs

• Paraffin/wax formation: wax precipitation and deposition mechanisms
• Wax deposition issues: pipeline blockage, reduced flow capacity
• Wax management methods:
  - Prediction: Wax Appearance Temperature (WAT) determination
  - Inhibitors: wax crystal modifiers, pour point depressants
  - Hot oiling: circulation of heated oil to dissolve wax deposits
  - Chemical cleaning: use of solvents to dissolve wax
  - Pigging and well intervention: mechanical removal of wax and any solid deposits
• Asphaltene precipitation: factors affecting asphaltene stability, asphaltene inhibitors and dispersants
• Sludge formation and precautions
• Case Studies: analysis of real-world flow assurance challenges and solutions

• Inorganic scales: scale formation mechanisms, scale inhibitors, scale removal techniques (e.g., acidizing) with actual case study
• Naphthenates: formation and control of naphthenates
• Emulsions: emulsion formation and stabilisation, emulsion breakers
• Foams: foam formation and control
• Corrosion: corrosion mechanisms, prevention methods, corrosion inhibitors, , Evaluation tools, and material selection
• Erosion: sand production and erosion prediction and prevention
• Bacteria and reservoir souring with actual case study

• Strategies for system operability: developing a comprehensive flow assurance plan
• Chemical strategies: selection and application of appropriate chemical treatments, additives, and side effects
• Thermal management: insulation, heating systems, and heat tracing
• System design considerations: pipeline routing, equipment selection, and operational procedures
• Flow assurance risk assessment: HAZOP studies, FMECA analysis
• Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in flow assurance:
  - What is CFD? Basic principles of CFD and its application to fluid flow and heat transfer problems
  - CFD workflow: pre-processing (geometry creation, mesh generation), solving (numerical simulation), post-processing (data analysis and visualisation)
  - Applications of CFD in flow assurance
• Integration: how CFD results can be used in conjunction with software
• Limitations of CFD: discussing the challenges associated with CFD modelling, such as computational cost, mesh dependency, and turbulence model selection

• Steady-state and transient analysis: combining fluid flow, heat transfer, and thermodynamics using software tools
• Sensitivity analysis: evaluating the impact of uncertainties on flow assurance predictions
• Data validation: ensuring the accuracy and reliability of model inputs

• Operational procedures: maintaining production rate, avoiding blockage and slugging
• Well testing: ensuring energy and facility capacity, monitoring fluid properties
• Laboratory identification and testing of flow assurance issues and formation damage
• Pigging operations: planning and executing pigging runs
• Chemical injection optimisation: adjusting chemical injection rates based on field conditions.
• Real-time monitoring: using sensors, fiber optics, and data analytics to detect and respond to flow assurance issues

• Economic impact: CapEx and OpEx considerations for flow assurance solutions
• Future trends: non-chemical scale inhibition, advancements in simulation tools, integration with digital technologies (e.g., machine learning, IoT), and remote monitoring
• Environmental considerations: minimising the environmental footprint of flow assurance operations

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