A Review of Strategies for Solving Gas-Hydrate Problems in Subsea Pipelines

Abstract

Flow assurance management is critical to successful and economic operation of oil and gas production systems. As production activities progress into deeper waters, flow assurance challenges become more prevalent, and system design must address these issues from a fresh perspective. Hence, new management and remediation techniques have to be developed to reliably, efficiently, safely, and economically prevent or handle these problems for the range of expected conditions including startup, shutdown, and turndown scenarios.

An inherent problem with natural gas production or transmission is the formation of gas hydrates, which can lead to safety hazards to production/transportation systems and to substantial economic risks. Therefore, an understanding of how, when, and where hydrates form is necessary to overcoming hydrate problems. These questions have become all the more crucial since deepwater fields have been discovered or brought in production, where these fields are perfect candidate to encounter hydrate forming conditions. This article answers these crucial questions as well as provides significant information on the best method to prevent and remediate hydrates in deepwater production operations.

Keywords:

• flow assurance
• gas hydrates
• prevention techniques
• subsea pipelines

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Dr. Ulfert Klomp of Shell Global Solutions International B.V, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, for the kind assistance, comments, and suggestion received from him for the article.