Gas Production Platforms Research Articles

How to Ensure the Quality of Construction Works for Marine Platforms with Reference to Midia Gas Development Project - ANA Platform & Doina Well & Gas Treatment Plant -

Abstract The Midia Gas Development Project is a new offshore gas project which has been developed and built in the last 30 year in the maritime territory of Romania. Once completed, it will have the ability to cover around 10% of gas needs of Romanian population. Currently there is about 10 Bcm of resources to be produced at a rate of about 1 Bcm per annum. The infrastructure was thought to be used for the production of gas from the reservoirs of Ana and Doina, in the first place. But the long term vision of the project consists in converting the already existent infrastructure to develop green energy projects, such an offshore wind plant, solar panels fields or production of hydrogen, projects that may start time before decommissioning of the gas production platform.

A Weight of Evidence (WOE) Approach to Assess Environmental Hazard of Marine Sediments from Adriatic Offshore Platform Area

European legislative framework supports a multidisciplinary strategy of environmental monitoring because the environment is a complex system of abiotic and biotic interactions, and it should not be studied and protected by looking at one single aspect. The resulting heterogeneous data request to be carefully processed, and the application of Weight of Evidence (WOE) approaches is, thereby, an integrated validated tool. In this perspective, the present study aims to: (i). apply a specific model (Sediqualsoft) based on the WOE approach for processing multidisciplinary data related to four Lines Of Scientific Evidence (LOEs: chemical analyses, ecotoxicological bioassays, bioaccumulation tests and biomarkers) regarding sediments from an area of the Adriatic Sea; (ii). evaluate the usefulness of this specific integrated approach to estimate the potential environmental hazard due to the presence of gas production platforms respect to the traditional approach of sediment chemical characterization. This latter recognized a more contaminated area within 100 m of the platforms in which the Sediqualsoft model showed the presence of a chemical hazard, ranging from moderate to severe, and identified the contaminants (e.g., some metals, benzo(a)pyrene and acenaphthene) most responsible for it. A significant hazard also appeared in some of the sampled stations by analyzing the LOEs dedicated to the biological responses. The choice of different reference values (regulatory limits, threshold values or concentrations measured in the control area) influenced only the chemical hazard but not the overall integration with other LOEs, showing a moderate hazard for the majority of stations. Here, the concentrations measured in a control area are firstly proposed as possible reference values in Sediqualsoft model applications; this could be of particular relevance when Sediment Quality Guidelines are not available for all the measured substances. Moreover, the limitations of a conventional pass-to-fail approach or worst-case scenario were overcoming interpreting whole chemical and ecotoxicological results. All data analyzed and discussed confirm Sediqualsoft as a suitable tool for processing environmental data, including those first processed here on a monitoring scenario of gas platforms that discharge Produced Water into the sea.

Технологии безопасного обращения с отходами бурения при строительстве скважин в Обской губе

Development of the Russian oil and gas fields in the Arctic requires ensuring industrial and environmental safety of conduct of the operations. Large and unique oil and gas condensate fields are discovered in the southern part of the Kara Sea. The Kamennomysskoye-Sea, Severo-Kamennomysskoye, Semakovskoye, Parusovoye, etc. gas condensate fields are located in the Ob Bay of the Kara Sea. The raw material base of the Severo-Obskoye gas condensate field, unique in terms of the reserves, will become the basis for future Arctic LNG projects. Based on the published data, the initial recoverable total hydrocarbon resources in the Ob and Taz bays are about seven billion tons. Active exploration and commissioning of the already discovered fields require the large volumes of well drilling in a freezing sea, the presence of permafrost, and gas hydrates. During construction of the wells and operation of the offshore ice-resistant oil and gas production platforms, it is required to ensure the disposal of drilling waste (cuttings) and domestic water. There are two technologies for waste disposal — injection into the reservoir or into the clay formations. The first one is used in onshore fields, the second one — on the shelf. Injection into a clay reservoir is successfully used in the Lunskoye gas field on the shelf of the Sakhalin island, and on the Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Pechora Sea. The possibility of using the method and the selection of a reservoir for injecting waste into it requires a geological justification, and the reservoir should ensure a stable injectivity of the required volume. The article presents the results of modeling the injection into the formation of drilling waste, and the waste of the household activities for the Kamennomysskoe-Sea gas condensate field. Calculation was made concerning the zone of absorption of the technological waste into the designed well of the offshore ice-resistant stationary platform. Formation allocation for waste injection was made according to the data of a complex of offshore wells geophysical studies. Three packs of sandy-argillaceous rocks with high reservoir properties were selected as the object of industrial waste disposal. Сalculation was carried out related to the radius of the spread of waste (effluent) in the target reservoir considering drilling and operation of twenty five wells, the construction of which is planned for five years. The results of modeling the process of pumping industrial waste of various types into an absorption well showed that the planned volumes can be successfully disposed of in the selected objects. This will allow to ensure functioning of the marine industry and its environmental safety.

Sustainable and clean oilfield development: How access to wind power can make offshore platforms more sustainable with production stability

With the continuous development of offshore wind power and clean oil fields, the introduction of wind power into the offshore oil and gas field energy system has attracted much more attention. As an oil and gas production platform with both production capacity and energy consumption, on the premise of ensuring stable production, the adoption of an economical and reasonable energy device design scheme will not only help to reduce the construction cost, but also can promote energy-saving and emission reduction. In this paper, the economic and environmental performance of the energy system for three scenarios including traditional energy system, DES without wind energy access and DES with wind energy access are simulated by building a new robust optimization model for energy system that takes the minimum annual total cost of the energy system as the objective function. The impact of wind power access platform grid on the DES is comparatively analyzed in detail. Taking an oil production platform in the Pacific as an example, the results show that, while wind power access reduces carbon emissions by approximately 39.91%, it can also reduce the total annual cost of the system by approximately 2.57%. At the same time, through sensitivity analysis, we found that there is an optimal ratio 57.04% of wind energy based on economy which is influenced by crude oil price. In addition, the effects of uncertain parameters including energy demand, associated gas production and wind power are compared and analyzed, which can provide risk mitigation support for decision makers.

Research on Structural Design and Selection of Minimal Jacket Platform

Minimal jacket platform refers to the offshore oil and gas production platform with simple structure, light weight and less topside facilities. In order to design and select platform structure better, a minimal jacket platform with a single-leg three-post structure type was designed in this paper. Option one uses the independent leg type, and option two uses the main column as the leg type. The structural design, comparison and selection research were carried out from three aspects: static force, fatigue and collapse analysis. The analysis results show that the mechanical performance of the jacket with independent leg type is better, which provides reference for the design of this kind of minimal platform in the future.

Advanced control of compression systems for oil and natural gas production platforms

Advanced control of compression systems for oil and natural gas production platforms

Application of Nanotechnology in Oil and Gas Industry: Synthesis and Characterization of Organo-modified Bentonite from Boane Deposit and its Application in Produced Water Treatment

Ca-bentonite sample from Boane region, Maputo Province, Mozambique exhibiting a white colour was organo-modified and subsequently evaluated for uses as an adsorbent for the treatment of produced water from a natural gas production platform. The clay was subjected to organo-modification through ion-exchange reaction by cationic surfactants namely benzalkonium chloride and cetrimonium bromide. The organophilization process altered the natural hydrophilic character to hydrophobic. The effectiveness of the ion-exchange procedure was revealed by XRD patterns, wherein the main Ca-MMT d001 peak changed from 1.520 nm to 1.960 nm when the concentration of cetrimonium bromide used for organo-modification varied from 50 to 100 meq and from 1.520 to 1.830 nm when a fixed concentration of benzalkonium chloride was used. Wastewater treatment performance evaluation of synthesized products showed that the physico-chemical and bacteriological properties improved significantly, showing clearly that Boane bentonite has enormous potential to be applied as an adsorbent material for produced water treatment.

Supercritical CO2Heat Recovery System Finds Application in Oil and Gas Operations

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper SPE 197965, “Transforming Waste Heat to Electric Power in Oil and Gas Compression Systems Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide,” by Thomas Soulas, Siemens, prepared for the 2019 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 11-14 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The complete paper describes an advanced Rankine cycle process-based system that converts waste heat into usable electrical power to improve the efficiency of gas-compression stations on gas-production platforms and pipelines. Instead of steam, this system uses industrial-grade carbon dioxide (CO2) in the supercritical state as the working fluid. Introduction Globally, rejected heat is estimated to correspond to approximately 65% of net energy input across the industrial infrastructure, with numbers varying from 60 to 70% depending on the region. Considerable waste heat is ejected from equipment such as the gas turbines commonly used in mechanical drive applications found in the compression processes of gas-production platforms and transmission pipelines. Recently, a technology that supports energy recovery from heat rejected from a broad range of industrial processes has become available to the oil and gas industry. The system recovers usable, but often wasted, heat and converts it into higher-value, usable electrical power. While most gas turbine heat-recovery systems use a bottoming steam cycle to improve thermal efficiency, the system described in the complete paper is based on an advanced Rankine cycle process. With revenue and cost predictability, the technology generates power at a competitive installed cost and delivers an estimated 10% increase in baseline efficiency for a gas-compression station to reduce effectively the overall cost of electricity. The main innovation of the technology lies in the selection of CO2 as the working fluid. Advantages of CO2 in Heat-Recovery Cycles CO2 has relatively moderate conditions for the supercritical state, with a critical pressure of 1,071 psi and a critical temperature of just above 88°F. With an approximately 50% increase in specific heat capacity at approximately the critical point and likely cycle conditions, and a reduced compressibility factor near the critical point, CO2 is ideally suited to recover heat energy across a broad range of temperatures and sources such as those found in exhaust gas streams.

Accuracy of satellite-derived estimates of flaring volume for offshore oil and gas operations in nine countries

Flaring of natural gas contributes to climate change and wastes a potentially valuable energy resource. Various groups have estimated flaring volumes via remote sensing by nighttime detection of flares using multi-spectral imaging. However, only limited efforts have been made to independently assess the accuracy of these estimation methods. I analyze the accuracy of the VIIRS Nightfire published flare detection results, comparing yearly estimated flaring rates to reported flaring data from governments in 9 countries (Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, USA, UK) and 7 years (2012–2018 inclusive). We analyze only flares occurring at offshore oil and gas production platforms and floating production units. A total of 1054 flare volume estimates were compared to volumes reported to government agencies. 80.8% of flare estimates lie within 0.5 orders of magnitude (OM) of reported volumes, which 93.7% fall within 1 OM of the reported volume. Little systematic bias is found except in the smallest size classes (<106 m3 y−1). Relative error ratios are larger for smaller flares. No significant trend was observed across years, and variation by country is in line with that expected by size distribution of flares by country. Wide aggregate estimates for groups of flares will exhibit little bias and dispersion, with the sum of 1000 flares having an expected interquartile range of −6% to +3% of actual reported volumes. Social media blurb: Test of remote sensing for flare detection shows accuracy across 9 countries and 8 years.

GNSS measurements for ground deformations detection around offshore natural gas fields in the Northern Adriatic Region

Abstract. The study aims to evaluate ground deformations in a vast area characterized by the coexistence of intense anthropic activities and offshore natural gas production. Onshore subsidence can be studied by GNSS, InSAR, high precision leveling and extensometers that provide broad datasets for a fully integrated description of the phenomenon. At present, seafloor subsidence monitoring cannot be carried out by high precision leveling, and GNSS is the only reliable method, implemented by means of permanent stations installed on offshore hydrocarbon production facilities. In the Northern/Central Adriatic Sea gas production platforms, GNSS data are recorded since more than 15 years, allowing to estimate not only the average subsidence of the platform/seafloor, but also possible velocity variations due to underground fluids withdrawal. This study shows the comparison of 22 offshore GNSS permanent stations located in the study area. Raw data have been processed with two different software packages (GIPSY-OASIS and GAMIT-GLOBK) based on different approaches and considering different boundary conditions of geodetic and/or modeling nature. Main results point out the high accuracy of the GNSS technology considering also the impact of data processing. Finally, at selected permanent stations we also performed a comparison of results obtained by GNSS, InSAR and high precision leveling.

Understanding the Ecological Validity of Relying Practice as a Basis for Risk Identification.

Understanding the reliability of hazardous organizations and their protective systems is central to understanding the risk they produce. Work on "high reliability organization" has done much to illuminate the conditions in which social organization becomes reliable in highly demanding conditions. But risk depends just as much on how relying entities do their relying as it does on the reliability of the entities they rely on. Patterns of relying are often opaque in sociotechnical systems, and processes of relying and being relied on are mutually influencing in complex ways, so the relationship between relying and risk may not be at all obvious. This study was an attempt to study relying as a social practice, in particular analyzing how it had ecological validity in a social organization-how practice was responsive to the conditions in which it took place. This involved observational fieldwork and inductive, qualitative analysis on an offshore oil and gas production platform that was nearing the end of its design life and undergoing refurbishment. The analysis produced four main categories of ecological validity: responsiveness to formal organization, responsiveness to situational contingency, responsiveness to information asymmetry, and responsiveness to sociomateriality. This ecological validity of relying practice should be a primary focus of risk identification, assessing how relying can become mismatched to reliability in certain ways, both when relying practice is responsive to circumstances and when it is not.

In Arctic - new technical means and technologies for the development of oil and gas fields in long-term freezing deepwater areas

The article presents the rationale for the need to create submarine oil and gas vessels / structures in the Arctic for the development of oil and gas fields in deep-sea long-freezing seas due to ice impacts that destroy offshore platforms. The need to solve the problems of developing oil and gas resources of the Russian sector of the Arctic seas of the Arctic Ocean (Arctic Ocean) is undeniable. However, the cost-effectiveness of implementing measures requires not only a careful selection of modern technologies and technical means, but also the development of new technical solutions with increasing consideration of the environmental safety problems of the entire oceans. Especially important is the fact that for the development of deeper long-term freezing Arctic seas, it is necessary to create subsea oil and gas production platforms, including, of course, drilling platforms that should be combined with production vessels. It is equally important for the Arctic deep-sea gas and gas condensate fields to use the new technology for liquefying natural gas, specially created for underwater conditions, since modern liquefaction technologies can only be used for surface conditions.

Seismic profiling of the sea-bottom in recognition of geotechnical condition

Seismic surveys are widely applied in research on the recognition of geological and geotechnical conditions of seabed and ocean floor sediments. The methodology and equipment needed to carry out shallow seismic and direct geotechnical surveys, as well as the analysis of the results based on the survey of the Polish Baltic Sea bottom, shall be presented here. The interpretation of the seismic survey results is based on the analysis of the registration of different acoustic levels, characteristics of seismo-acoustic layers, their degree of readability and slope angles of individual acoustic reflections. The author deals with the analyses of seismic reflection data and tries to understand the wave image as best as possible. Based on the seismic registrations obtained by the Geofizyka-Torun company, the author has elaborated interpretation patterns for the Polish Baltic sediments, which are also presented here. The seismic surveys were used to construct maps of specific levels with different geotechnical conditions in the sea-bottom and at a depth of 10, 20 and 30 m below the seabed. The author presents here new results of research related to the geotechnical characteristics of the Polish Baltic substrate at a depth of 30 m below the seabed. The geotechnical map of the Polish Baltic Sea of the substrate at the depth of 30 m below the sea-bottom, as prepared by the author, is very important for building deep foundations of marine constructions, such as oil and gas exploration and production platforms. Seismic surveys allow a good degree of recognition of various geotechnical types of soils in the Polish Baltic sea-bottom, for which approximate values of characteristic geotechnical parameters have been determined.

Multicriteria analysis of methane mitigation options on offshore oil and gas production platforms

The oil and gas exploration and production sector are one of the most significant methane emitters through fossil fuel combustion and fugitive emissions. In Brazil, there are few studies focused on the mitigation of methane in the oil sector. The objective of the present work is to use a multicriteria analysis methodology to compare different methane mitigation technologies applicable to offshore oil and gas platforms. In the study, six different mitigation options were compared through the analytic hierarchy process methodology, considering environmental, financial and operational criteria. The results were calculated for each mitigation option considering the scores of each criterion and their respective relative weights, obtained in the prioritization of the elements. This unique score obtained through the analytic hierarchy process made it possible to compare the mitigation alternatives. The alternative that received the best score considering the evaluated criteria was the recovery of vapor from cargo tanks associated with methane reuse, being highlighted mainly due to its high potential for mitigation.

Optimal Planning of Integrated Energy Systems for Offshore Oil Extraction and Processing Platforms

With the introduction of new technologies, such as waste heat recovery units (WHRU), associated gas utilization, the energy flow coupling relationship is further deepened within the energy system of the offshore oil and gas production platform. Besides, the energy system is closely linked with the oil and gas production system, and a closed-loop relationship between energy flow and material flow can be revealed. Uncertainties of energy supply and production process may lead to system-wide fluctuations, which threaten the stable operation of the platform. Therefore, an optimal planning model of integrated energy system for offshore oil and gas production platform is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a generalized energy and material flow model is proposed, three matrixes are defined based on laws of thermodynamics, including energy matrix, process matrix and feedback matrix. Secondly, the energy-material conversion relationship between the energy system and production system of a typical offshore oil and gas platform is quantitatively described, together with the coupling between the input and output of the two systems. Thirdly, considering the energy-material balance constraints and the uncertainties of production system, a multi-objective stochastic planning model for the offshore integrated energy system is established, which takes economics and environmental protection into consideration. A Monte Carlo simulation-based NSGA-II algorithm is proposed to solve the model. Finally, the validity and feasibility of the proposed methodology are demonstrated through an offshore oil and gas platform in Bohai, China. Compared with the traditional planning method, the total cost and CO2 emissions of the proposed method are reduced by 18.9% and 17.3%, respectively.

Monitoring marine effects of produced formation water discharge in Bass Strait

Esso Australia Pty Ltd (Esso), in a joint venture with BHP Petroleum Pty Ltd, operates 23 oil and gas production platforms and subsea facilities off the Victorian coast near Gippsland, Australia. The underlying reservoirs have multi-darcy sands and a strong aquifer water drive, so in addition to oil and gas, the extraction activities result in substantial amounts of produced formation water (PFW). Following on-platform treatment, PFW containing a variety of hydrocarbons, ions and inorganics, such as calcium, ammonia, sulfate and trace metals, is discharged into the receiving environment. This paper reports on a study undertaken to investigate the potential effects of PFW discharges from two platforms (Tuna (TNA) and West Kingfish (WKF)) on the receiving environment. Four complementary sampling approaches were used to address the objectives of the study: (1) measure and estimate the dilution of Rhodamine FWT dye solution in the receiving environment following injection into the PFW discharge line, (2) collect and analyse undiluted PFW samples before discharge, (3) collect and analyse marine water samples from within the discharge plume and (4) collect and analyse sediment and benthic infauna samples at various distances away from platforms and at reference locations. Results indicate the rate of PFW dilution within the receiving environment is more rapid than predicted by existing numerical models and that the concentration of all analytes present in PFW were below Australian and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council (ANZECC) 2000 guideline trigger values for 80% protection; moreover, with one exception, analytes were not detected above background levels more than 59 m from the platform. With the exception of a few samples containing metals, specifically arsenic, copper, lead, zinc and nickel, concentrations of analytes in the majority of sediment samples collected were below the ANZECC 2000 and revised 2013 sediment quality guidelines. A diverse range of benthic infauna were sampled, with the abundance of a limited number of taxa influenced by distance from individual platforms. No substantial differences in abundances of benthic infauna were detected at distances greater than 1.3 km from TNA and 1.0 km from WKF, compared with reference locations. These results indicate that PFW discharges from TNA and WKF likely represent a low risk to the receiving environment.

Wind Waves in the Northwestern Black Sea

The study presents the results of long-term monitoring of wind waves was carried out on the offshore fixed gas production platform in the northwestern part of the Black Sea in 1995–2011. The analysis of more than 31000 wave records provided reliable statistical characteristics of wind waves in the analyzed region. It was found that the maximum wave height reached 4.8 m in summer and 8.76 m in winter. The maximum hourly wave height exceeds significant wave height by 1.9 times in the vast majority of cases. The method of annual maxima revealed that in the Karkinit Bay the maximum wave height with the return period of 50 years is equal to 9.2 m.

Habitat‐Specific Reproductive Potential of Red Snapper: A Comparison of Artificial and Natural Reefs in the Western Gulf of Mexico

AbstractEnergy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico (hereafter, Gulf) has resulted in the addition of numerous oil and gas production platforms that create structurally complex habitat in an area otherwise dominated by barren mud/sand bottom. How these artificial structures affect fish populations is largely unknown, and there is ongoing debate regarding their value as surrogate habitats for ecologically and economically important reef fish species. Thus, the purpose of this study was to characterize trends in Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus reproductive potential in the western Gulf at oil and gas platform reefs relative to reproductive potential at natural banks. Red Snapper (n = 1,585) were collected during 2013–2015 from standing platforms, decommissioned platform artificial reefs, and natural banks by using standardized vertical line gear. Comparisons of gonadosomatic index, male : female ratios, batch fecundity, annual fecundity, spawning frequency, and number of spawning‐capable individuals indicated that Red Snapper reproductive biology was similar among natural bank, standing platform, and artificial reef habitats. These results suggest that in terms of reproductive output, fish inhabiting artificial reefs are functionally similar to similar‐aged fish on natural banks. This work can be used to make informed management decisions and suggests that there are benefits to converting decommissioned platforms into designated artificial reefs. Future studies should consider site‐specific characteristics, such as depth, vertical relief, and proximity to other structures, to elucidate how habitat characteristics may influence reproduction, ultimately improving future artificial reef deployments for fisheries enhancement in the western Gulf.

Structural and functional similarity of epibenthic communities on standing and reefed platforms in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico

Fossil fuel extraction in the Gulf of Mexico currently involves the use of approximately 2000 active oil and gas production platforms. These artificial structures provide a number of ecological functions including habitat provision for epibenthic invertebrates and production of food and refuge for a variety of fish species. To mitigate the loss of habitat when active platforms are decommissioned, Rigs-to-Reefs programs maintain existing communities by removing the upper 26 m of platform structure and converting upper and lower portions into artificial reefs. We examined the epibenthic communities of two standing platforms at 5 m and 30 m depths and three reefed platforms at 30 m depths. A combination of stable isotope and community analysis was used to assess the structure and food web functioning of epibenthic communities among these site-types. Reefed platforms (30 m) supported communities with similar food web structure as 5 m and 30 m standing platform communities. However, community composition in standing platform and reefed platform sites at 30 m differed from those of standing platform sites at 5 m depths. Results indicate that, although loss of shallow water habitat associated with platform reefing may diminish some aspects of biodiversity, reefed platforms support similar fundamental ecological functions as standing platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Thus, the current reefing practice of removal of the upper 26 m of the structure does not substantially influence the functionality of these systems, and the retained structure maintains beneficial habitat for epibenthic communities.

Perspective projects of placement of RES energy plants at the offshore structures and on them

In the scientific study, the offshore oil and gas production platforms were considered after the exhaustion of hydrocarbon reserves. An alternative to dismantling is the possibility of refitting and retrofitting prospective structures for the function of energy production. The general problem of determining the climatic offshore oil and gas fields is also considered. For the development of maritime infrastructure, a design development was added to complement the functionality of offshore platforms for energy production. The chosen methods for developing.The subject of the study: the subject of the study are offshore oil and gas production platforms, marine power plants for power generation and bioenergy objects.Objectives: the purpose of the study is to identify options for the use of offshore hydraulic installations in marine offshore platforms for generating energy and locating bioenergetic facilities.Materials and methods: in the course of the work, various options for the use of offshore platforms in the field of renewable energy sources are considered, without the need for disposal of objects.Results: as a result of the work, the project of the experimental energy complex of bioreactor and biocultivator EECBB and RES.Conclusions: the energy sector has the opportunity to be environmentally friendly and rely on the principles of sustainable development.