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PRCI PR-177-515
- Field Observations of Two-Phase Flow in the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System
- Report / Survey by Pipeline Research Council International, 05/20/1986
- Publisher: PRCI
$448.00$895.00
L51510e
Digitron Inc.
Need: Offshore gas production typically involves the simultaneous flow of oil and/or condensate. The oil may he entrained in the gas rising in the vertical well from the sea-bed or may flow under its own pressure gradient; condensate may result from the reduction of pressure from well conditions to pipeline transport pressure and from cooling sea temperatures. It would be unduly expensive to build a gas-liquid separation facility on a production platform, followed by two separate pipeline transport systems for the two phases. It is therefore desirable to examine pipeline systems that carry hydrocarbon liquid and gas together.
Result: Two-phase flow of oil and gas under steady-state operation of the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System was observed by nuclear densitometry at two onshore sites. Oil flowed into the pipeline system at an average rate of 1.6 Bbl/ MMSCF over the two-month data acquisition period; gas flow was constant at about 200 MMSCF per day.
Benefit: One immediate way of gaining some knowledge of two-phase flow in field-size pipeline systems is simply to construct them and observe what happens. This is obviously a risky and expensive venture. However, such systems have been constructed, often modified by trial and error, and have worked. It is on these working two-phase pipelines that our attention should be focused in the immediate future to build up a knowledge bank for the construction of new but similar systems. Such is the focus of this study.
Digitron Inc.
Need: Offshore gas production typically involves the simultaneous flow of oil and/or condensate. The oil may he entrained in the gas rising in the vertical well from the sea-bed or may flow under its own pressure gradient; condensate may result from the reduction of pressure from well conditions to pipeline transport pressure and from cooling sea temperatures. It would be unduly expensive to build a gas-liquid separation facility on a production platform, followed by two separate pipeline transport systems for the two phases. It is therefore desirable to examine pipeline systems that carry hydrocarbon liquid and gas together.
Result: Two-phase flow of oil and gas under steady-state operation of the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System was observed by nuclear densitometry at two onshore sites. Oil flowed into the pipeline system at an average rate of 1.6 Bbl/ MMSCF over the two-month data acquisition period; gas flow was constant at about 200 MMSCF per day.
Benefit: One immediate way of gaining some knowledge of two-phase flow in field-size pipeline systems is simply to construct them and observe what happens. This is obviously a risky and expensive venture. However, such systems have been constructed, often modified by trial and error, and have worked. It is on these working two-phase pipelines that our attention should be focused in the immediate future to build up a knowledge bank for the construction of new but similar systems. Such is the focus of this study.