Design of Subsea storage tanks for Arctic conditions - heat treatment of materials

Abstract

The Arctic region contains a plethora of recoverable hydrocarbon wealth in the form of oil and gas in existing conventional wells and other undiscovered fields. The main challenges faced in the Arctic region are both environmental and operational. Some environmental challenges are low ambient temperature, winterization, severity and unpredictability of the weather. However, the issue of multi-phase flow in the current operation coupled with the decline of the reservoir pressure are the major concerns in this gas field. In the early stages of field life, the reservoir pressure is sufficient to allow the natural flow from reservoir formation to surface without additional supporting compression. Unfortunately, the pressure naturally declines throughout the entire life cycle of the field. To achieve a better production profile in the arctic region the idea is to implement a Subsea processing concept employing a Subsea Storage Tank (SST) in order to maximize production from additional infield wells, introducing a novel step in this field development phase that will change the entire oil and gas industry especially for subsea processing field architecture. The incorporation of SST in the subsea system will enhance the production rate as well as it avoids the transportation problems through pipe lines. By this work, the production rate is increased by 50% and decrease the oil spill accidents considerably.