Enabling oil and gas operations at longer distances and deeper water with greater value generation for new and existing fields.

Distant and complicated oil and gas fields can be exploited with new dynamic modelling technology. Scandpower Petroleum Technology, research institutions and international oil companies are cooperating to refine the industry leading dynamic modeling tool, OLGA 2000, in the Horizon project to develop the next generation tool for long-distance transport of untreated or conditioned wellstream fluids.

Scandpower Petroleum Technology’s more than 30 years of growth and success is a history of the oil and gas industry cooperating to continuously develop opportunities for challenging field developments. This is the historical enabler of “multiphase flow transport”, saving the industry billions in investments on all types of hydrocarbon field developments.

Scandpower Petroleum Technology (SPT) and the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) are located on adjacent properties at Kjeller outside Oslo, Norway. Agreements have been reached with ENI, Statoil, Hydro, and Shell to commission the development of Horizon based on the OLGA heritage as the industry leading tool for modelling multiphase transport with process equipment.

The introduction of OLGA in the 1980’s enabled the industry to attain a new level of utility from existing and new oil fields to a degree never seen before; furthermore, the development of complex new fields such as Ormen Lange and Snøhvit would not have been realised without the capabilities of OLGA in the design phase. “OLGA technology is clearly the winner when it comes to adding value for the oil companies,” states Ole Lindefjell, Research Manager in ConocoPhillips.

Profitability
Oil and gas field development is continuously pushing thresholds, the industry is seeking to develop deeper and more complex fields, increase return on investments in marginal fields, through higher recovery rates and tail production, and better use of adjacent fields. The ability to develop long and complex lines of transport is deemed a necessity for attaining better profitability and safer operating environments. Accurate flow modelling is one of many success criteria for increased profitability in most oil and gas field developments today, as well as, providing increased opportunities for productivity in existing fields.

Assessing the importance of accurate fluid-flow modelling, Pål Hedne at Statoil R&D exemplifies: “We have several fields all over the world where we are considering building long and complex transport lines. Further development in the Barents Sea is just one of these areas. This requires a good and accurate understanding of the physics of transport pipes. The description of such processes is lacking today. Even on fields already in production, a more powerful and accurate multiphase simulator can help increase recovery and more profitable tail production as well as better use of adjacent satellite fields.”

Technological Ambition
The development of Horizon has a three year budget of NOK 45 million and is scheduled for completion in 2008. Adding significant capabilities to the OLGA technology, the Horizon project will refine the foundation of multiphase modelling and increase the understanding and accuracy in prediction of flow assurance throughout the system, from reservoir to processing.

The work represents a completely new approach for multiphase pipe flow models in that it allows for multi-D simulations of large pipeline systems with the computer speed of 1-D models, realised through pre-integration of velocity profiles prior to run time. This will give the emerging models a potential for increased reliability, better extrapolation properties and extended applicability. The new models will also provide cross-sectional information that is required input for the improved flow assurance sub-models. The strategy for the flow assurance work is to develop models that are based on local rheology, accomplished by improved temperature predictions, more efficient tracking of components and a new fluid characterisation method.

Expanding multiphase modelling, Horizon will provide predictions of speed profiles of oil, gas and water respectively over the pipeline cross-section, a significant improvement on today’s models which estimates the average speed for all media over the given cross-section.

Added Value
The Horizon program focuses on research and development that will make possible new field developments far from existing infrastructure, reduce conservatism in design, increase reliability of flow assurance predictions, improve operability of multiphase flow-lines, and prolong the economic life of fields. All these factors will reduce the CAPEX and/or OPEX costs and increase production.

Undesired and challenging elements such as salt, salt deposits, hydrates and wax all influence flow assurance. In the design phase the results of Horizon will establish a significantly improved foundation for calculating pipeline dimensions and pressure drops on the given parameters. In the operating phase, the new OLGA capabilities will lend itself to real time simulations and predictions through the inclusion in Scandpower Petroleum Technology’s intelligent e-field solutions. As a complement to Horizon, the developers are creating new models enabling more advanced simulations of wellstreams integrated with the reservoir. Dag Thomassen, head of the process and fluid department at IFE, explains, “Different tools are used to model downwell activity, multiphase transport, and processing. Horizon provides an integrated tool giving an overall view, coordinating data and improving the data flow in the entire process. A lifetime concept will ensure reuse of data thus supporting the entire value chain.”