From Design, Installation and Commissioning of an Electrically Trace Heated Integrated Production Bundle

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Abstract The Papa Terra oil field is located on the BC-20 Block in the Campos Basin - Brazil (110 kilometers away from Rio de Janeiro state coast) in a water depth of 1,200 meters. The field is operated by Petrobras having Chevron as non-operator partner. Papa Terra has a crude oil with an API index between 14 and 17 degrees. The field is among one of the most complex subsea developments ever executed in Brazil with its first oil performed in 2013 and the production subsea facilities installation completed in 2014. The proposed design for the subsea production system was the use of an Electrically Trace Heated Integrated Production Bundle (ETH-IPB), the 3rd generation of this field proven technology, which was successfully designed, manufactured and installed by Technip on previous West African projects. A total of 27 km of ETH-IPB riser and flowline as well as its own electrical and monitoring module have been designed, manufactured, installed and successfully commissioned for the Papa Terra project. The core of the ETH-IPB is a 6" ID flexible pipe dedicated to production fluid. Around the core, the following components are distributed into a bundle layer:Heat tracing cables designed to provide active heating of the production fluid during warm up or after a shut-down.A Distributed Temperature Sensor (DTS) fiber optic system, deployed offshore into a stainless steel tube loop in order to provide temperature monitoring along the length of the riser and flowline system.Spacers, designed to protect the electrical cables and fiber optic tubes from mechanical loadings during installation and manufacturing. The main aim of this paper is to describe the design of this production system, that was used for the first time in Brazil and which present a lot of innovations in several domains, due to overall length, thermal requirements, heating control and riser to flowline electrical connection on the seabed. Some results of the qualification program will be presented, in particular mechanical, bundle components, fatigue and thermal performance tests. Finally, results of the field performance tests and operational feedback by Petrobras will be presented and discussed.