November
2016
79
HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
N
ot getting the chemical balance right in
upstream hydrocarbon pipelines has major
implications for the downstream oil and gas
sector. For this reason, vast resources are being
deployed upstream to mitigate the risk of flow
assurance issues occurring. Such problems not only
lead to substantial financial exposure for operators and
stakeholders, but can also pose serious environmental
and health and safety risks.
The shift to deepwater and subsea production,
which largely rely on the transportation of unprocessed
oil and gas streams over long distances, is creating even
greater flow assurance challenges that the industry
must overcome. One challenge in particular is the
excessive amount of water now being produced owing
to depleting oil and gas fields. All of these issues are
driving the need to have improved chemical dosing,
together with better techniques to identify not only
the best injection points, but also the optimum
quantity of chemical inhibitor required to avoid over
dosing or under dosing, of which both can have serious
implications.
Optimised chemical dosing is essential to ensure
effective flow assurance of oil and gas streams; flow
A
BALANCING
ACT
