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Mitigate flow assurance risks with Pipesim steady-state flow simulator

Some of the most severe operational hazards are associated with the transportation of fluids. When oil, water, and gas simultaneously flow in a well or pipeline, many problems can arise. These problems may be related to flow instabilities, solids formation that may potentially block the flowpath, and erosion and corrosion that may result in pipeline ruptures.

The ?Pipesim steady-state multiphase flow simulator offers workflows for both front-end system design and production operations. It is frequently used in conjunction with the Olga multiphase flow simulator to identify situations that require more detailed transient simulation. Such situations may include shut-in, startup, ramp-up, terrain-induced slugging, severe slugging, slug tracking, hydrate kinetics, and wellbore cleanup. Working together, ?Pipesim simulator and Olga simulator provide rigorous modeling for multiphase flow systems.

Design safe, more efficient systems with comprehensive flow assurance workflows

Pipeline and facility sizing

• Size pipelines to minimize backpressure while maintaining stable flow within the maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP).
• Size pumps, compressors, and multiphase boosters to meet target rates.
• Examine system-design layout options and operating parameters for a range of inputs.
• Size separation equipment and slug catchers to manage liquids associated with pigging, ramp-up surges, and hydrodynamic slugging volumes.
• Design and optimize pipelines and equipment such as pumps, compressors, and multiphase boosters to maximize production and capital investment.

Well performance

• Perform nodal analysis and diagnose liquid loading or lift requirements.
• Design artificial lift systems (e.g., rod pumps, progressing cavity pumps, ESPs, and gas lift) and compare their relative benefits.
• Optimize production through intelligent completions by modeling downhole flow control valves or other downhole equipment, such as chokes, subsurface safety valves, separators, and chemical injectors.
• Optimize the completion design by considering skin effects on horizontal well length and tubing or casing size.
• Model multilaterals or wells with multiple layers and crossflow.

Liquids managements

• Identify the risk for severe riser slugging.
• Account for emulsion formation.
• Assess the operational risk from the deposition of wax along flowlines over time.

Integrity

• Identify locations prone to corrosion and predict CO2 corrosion rates.
• Model erosion using the API 14E and Salama methods.
• Manage pipeline integrity with erosion and corrosion prediction.
• Accurately characterize fluid behavior with a wide variety of black-oil and compositional fluid models.

Solids management

• dentify the risks of potential solids formation including wax, hydrates, asphaltenes, and scales.
• Assess the risk from deposition of wax along flowlines over time.
• Determine the amount of methanol to inject to avoid hydrate formation.
• Calculate optimal burial depth and insulation requirements for pipelines.

Accelerate simulation accuracy with advanced modelling and GIS integration

The Pipesim steady-state multiphase flow simulator incorporates the three core areas of flow modeling: multiphase flow, heat transfer, and fluid behavior. For 40 years, the Pipesim simulator has been continuously improved by incorporating the latest science and innovations in computing and technologies.

The Pipesim simulator includes advanced three-phase mechanistic models, rigorous heat transfer modeling and comprehensive PVT modeling options. The ESRI-supported GIS map canvas helps deliver true spatial representation of wells, equipment, and networks. Networks can be built either on the GIS canvas or automatically using a GIS shapefile. Well model construction and analysis are performed using an interactive graphical wellbore. The implementation of a new parallel network solver, which spreads the computational load across all processors, delivers faster simulation runtime.

Leverage cutting-edge features for reliable flow assurance analysis

Hydrates prediction
The Pipesim simulator uses compositional fluid packages (Multiflash, Symmetry process simulation software) to predict simple and mixed hydrates formation in wellbore and pipelines. The description of the hydrate phase behavior uses a thermodynamically consistent set of models for all phases. The two following hydrates mitigation strategies can be modeled:

• Thermal insulation: The best way to mitigate hydrate risk is to maintain the fluid temperature inside the pipeline above the hydrate formation temperature.
• Chemical inhibition: If the insulation is not sufficient to maintain temperatures above the formation point, thermodynamic inhibitors such as methanol and mono ethylene glycol (MEG) can be modeled to determine the necessary dosage rates to prevent hydrates.

Wax and asphaltenes modeling
Wax and asphaltene deposition can become so severe that it can completely block a pipeline. The Pipesim simulator uses compositional fluid packages (Multiflash, Symmetry software) to calculate the wax and asphaltene formation temperatures along the profile. The option of inline heating usage is designed to mitigate the risk of wax precipitation.

Corrosion modeling
Understanding corrosion fundamentals is essential to design the strategies to control it. Corrosion occurs because an aqueous phase is almost always present in oil and gas fluids and depends on the concentration of CO2, temperature, pressure, flow regime, and flow rate. The Pipesim simulator offers corrosion models that consider three phase flow parameters and identifies localized water film stagnation impact of corrosion rate.

Erosion modeling
Erosion is potentially very damaging and can occur in solids-free fluids but is exacerbated by entrained solids (sand). With the Pipesim simulator, engineers can find the erosion velocity limit and estimate erosion velocity risk that helps to select appropriate equipment and materials. Additionally, the rate of material erosion caused by sand-laden fluid can be estimated for a well.

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