TPi January 2019

OCTG, gas & pipeline products

On-demand hydrate risk management solution for oil and gas production

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has introduced an on-demand hydrate risk management solution that helps offshore oil platform operators to maintain production levels, protect plant assets, and minimise operating expenses and downtime by optimising pipeline chemical injection. The new solution integrates simulation software from KBC, a wholly owned subsidiary, with Yokogawa’s flexible supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software to deliver a dashboard that enables consolidated, on-demand monitoring. Automated chemical injection metering valve technology can also be integrated as required. The formation of gas hydrates that block pipelines is, together with other flow assurance issues such as waxes, asphaltenes and scales, a major concern in the oil and gas industry for maintaining integrity of pipeline flow. The threat is particularly high in offshore oil platforms, which are increasingly moving to deep- water operations, as the fluid may cool to low temperatures in the flowline or in the production facilities. Hydrates form rapidly at certain temperature and pressure conditions, and can result in serious decreases in production levels, equipment damage, safety issues and even emergency shutdown of equipment. To mitigate this risk, operators generally inject chemical inhibitors into the hydrocarbon flow to prevent the formation of hydrates or other threats to production. During the plant design phase of oil and gas offshore platforms, modelling and simulation software and pre- operation field test data are utilised to optimise the pipeline network design and calculate the amount of inhibitor required to prevent hydrate formation. During operations, field operators use the simulation results to calculate the amount of inhibitor to be injected into the flow. Injection rates are regularly reviewed by field experts, but without real-time visibility into the actual state of the

Helping maintain production levels on platforms

pipeline, operators tend to overdose the inhibitor to provide a sufficient buffer for daily operational conditions and to compensate for changes in field properties over time. This can result in excessive chemical use and increased operating expenses. With the aim of enabling more efficient hydrate risk management, Yokogawa has developed a common dashboard for KBC’s two advanced, complementary simulation software solutions, Maximus ® and Multiflash ® , and Yokogawa’s own Fast/Tools™ SCADA system, making on-demand flow assurance a possibility. Maximus is a purpose-built tool for compositional thermal hydraulic steady state simulations of pipeline networks, including wells, choke valves, flowlines and a wide range of processing equipment. It can be used as both a production forecaster and flow assurance tool by predicting physical conditions of the network. Multiflash is a pressure-volume- temperature (PVT) modelling solution for hydrocarbon flow assurance and production modelling. It is used to evaluate the phase behaviour and physical and transport properties of complex mixtures and pure substances, and is suited to modelling multi-phase hydrocarbon mixtures. Used as an integrated SCADA system within and between plants, Fast/Tools offers the ability to work with and present information from various data sources and applications on a single

dashboard. In this solution, data from temperature and pressure sensors in the subsea wellhead, pipeline(s) and offshore platform is collected by Fast/ Tools and sent to KBC’s simulation software continuously or when operators require up-to-date hydrate formation risk information. Based on the results, Fast/Tools then displays the level and specific location of hydrate risk, and provides operators with the current hydrate formation curve and key performance indicators in one unified dashboard. In addition, the solution calculates the recommended level of inhibitor injection that enables a balance of risk and cost with a given margin. Integrating the KBC simulation and modelling technology with Yokogawa’s flexible SCADA platform enables operators to quickly make informed decisions about inhibitor injection volumes by getting the information they need on demand, without having to rely on periodic engineer analysis. Users also have the option of leveraging the precise, automated FluidCom TM chemical injection metering valve technology of subsidiary Yokogawa TechInvent AS to achieve an end-to-end hydrate risk management solution. Yokogawa Europe BV – Netherlands

info@nl.yokogawa.com www.yokogawa.com/eu KBC – UK

info@kbc.global www.kbc.global

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TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL January 2019

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