P&D Group – Research Activities Flow Technology

The November Conference Rio de Janeiro

2014

R&D Flow Technology Drivers

• Main Focus on:

• Oil Fields @ WD ~ 2200 m

• Gas Condensate @ WD ~ 2900 m

• Improve the description of reservoir fluids in terms of composition and behavior, covering the whole project cycle

• Develop new technologies to enable cost-effective ultra-deepwater field developments

• Take advantage of the Facilities and the 25-year track-record in Flow Assurance in Brazilian Research Center

2017+ 2016 2015 2014 2013

ALBACORA LESTE

SAPINHOA

LAPA Oil

Production

Key Partnerships

CEPETRO - UNICAMP

IMA - UFRJ

MECH. ENG. - PUC

LACIT - UTFPR

R&D Flow Technology Partners

CHEMISTRY - UNICAMP

BMC33

……

R&D Themes – Flow Technology

Heavy-End Characterization

Development Concepts

On-line Monitoring and Mitigation Strategies

Pore-Scale Behavior

Will Heavy-Ends destabilize during oil production?

How much can the Recovery Factor be improved?

What Technologies can be applied to minimize solid appearance during flow?

What Online Measurements can be used to optimize production?

Is it possible to relax the constraints of Arrival Temperature in the Design Basis?

What Remediation Techniques are in place when something goes wrong?

R&D Themes – Heavy-End Characterization

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

Campos and Santos Basins (both post-salt and pre-salt) contain a huge variety of fluid types, with their respective Flow Assurance problems: wax, asphaltenes, acidity, hydrates …

Cutting-edge technologies available in Public Research Institutions (i.e. UNICAMP, UFRJ, Espiritu Santo, Synchrotron Lab, Sirius, etc.)

• CO2 Content • Asphaltene Characterization • Geochemistry vs Flow Assurance • Impact in Subsea Factory

Asphaltene Molecular Weight

Asp

halte

ne M

obili

ty

UNICAMP

R&D Themes – Heavy-End Characterization

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

• Interaction between hydrocarbons - supercritical CO2 in reservoir modeling

• Early-Stage Prediction of oil solid formation in the reservoir / tubing

• Identification of the sticky ones inside the asphaltene fraction

• Mitigation of the impact of the presence of solids in the subsea factory

• Optimization of chemical injection (more environmentally friendly inhibitors)

Operators R&D Centers

R&D Themes – Pore-Scale Behavior

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

Brazilian reservoirs comprise a huge variety of rock types: carbonates, sandstones, volcanic... Modeling of Flow through porous media can profit from latest improvements in Computational Times, to rigorously account for fluid-fluid-rock interactions Lab facilities available in the country (PUC, UNICAMP, UTFPR etc.) and also facilities to work with Digital Rocks (CONCREMAT)

• CO2 injection (reactive transport) • Methods for Productivity Improvement • Design of EOR additives • Up-scaling to field size

Flow through Micro-Channels

PUC

R&D Themes – Pore-Scale Behavior

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

• Rigorous models for rock-fluid interaction in flow in porous media

• Interaction between rock-hydrocarbon and supercritical CO2

• Methodology to scale up to reservoir conditions

• Tailoring of EOR treatments to improve recovery

• Analysis of subsea processing options in a sufficiently quick manner during Visualization

Operators R&D Centers

R&D Themes – Concept Selection

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

Deepwater Developments face solid formation challenges related to temperature change with ambient and internal Joule Thomson expansion. Efforts in Universities directed to improving the description of multiphase flow, solid formation, agglomeration and deposition (COPPE, UTFPR, UNICAMP, etc.); main Service Companies working in Subsea technologies have R&D Facilities in the Country

• Deposition and agglomeration kinetics • Enablers for long Distance Tie Backs

(Active Heating, Cold Flow) • Subsea Processing

R&D Themes – Concept Selection

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

• Liquid-liquid-vapor multiphase models in large diameter pipes

• Wax deposition models in LLV flow • Hydrate agglomeration models to

operate in the solid formation region (all flow regimes)

• Bulk cooling as a way to reduce risks of deposition in vertical flow

• Optimization of wall temperature with Active Heating

• Cold Flow - stable slurry flow for long distance tie backs

Operators R&D Centers

R&D Themes – Control and Mitigation

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

Better instrumentation (local or along tubing or pipelines) open ways to improve the methods for history matching and production forecasts. Main Service Companies are present in the country; Universities (UTFPR, etc.) also involved in the improvement of sensors.

• Online Monitoring • Instrumentation • Remediation (Pigging, Dissociation)

R&D Themes – Control and Mitigation

Heavy-Ends Concepts Monitoring Pore-Scale

• Rigorous, fast models that allow easy tuning and prediction of flow in what-if scenarios

• Instrumentation for online monitoring

• Co-injection of inhibitors in a single umbilical

• Active Heating for waxy gel and hydrate dissociation

• Other Methods for blockage remediation in flexible lines

Operators R&D Centers

R&D Flow Technology - Summary

• RSB is an active player in Flow Technology R&D since 2011

• 25-year (+) experience in Flow Assurance in Brazilian Research Centers

• Main areas of interest related to:

• Will Heavy-Ends destabilize during oil production?

• How much can the Recovery Factor be improved?

• What Technologies can be applied to minimize solid appearance during flow?

• Is it possible to relax the Arrival Temperature constraints in the Design Basis?

• What Online Measurements can be used to optimize production?

• What Remediation Techniques are in place when something goes wrong?