An Automated Sand Deposition and Erosion Control Program: a Digital Solution for Pipeline Integrity

Abstract In this paper we describe the automated sand deposition prediction and erosion control advisors (SDECA) in the multiphase production network and how it enhances operational excellence and strengthens the Health, Safety and Environment vision by monitoring pipeline integrity in real-time. The SDECA is an automated advisory which runs automatically and needs minimal to no human intervention, providing operational awareness and actionable insights to decision-makers in real-time. Production fluids endure harsh ambient conditions before arriving at their distribution port. During a typical production lifecycle, every oil and gas field faces unique flow assurance challenges. Among all, sand production poses one of the most severe flow assurance risks. Large sand particles tend to settle in the pipeline forming pockets of sand beds while the small particles are carried away with fluid and causes erosion in (subsea and onshore) production facilities. Sand build-up significantly reduces operational efficiency due to higher pressure demands on the system. The automated sand deposition prediction and erosion control advisor (SDECA) program uses a comprehensive approach to track sand deposition, sand transport along the production fluid and sand bed forming conditions by utilizing field measurements, multiphase software outputs, and the data analytics techniques. The automated erosion control program not only estimates the erosion rate in real-time, total metal loss but also identify the locations which are experiencing or have been experiencing erosional issues in complex production networks. Multiple methods are included and compared simultaneously in this SDECA program which make it robust and accurate. When the operating conditions indicate a change in the operating point outside the erosion free risk operating region and into the erosion region, the SDECA generates a warning and subsequently an alarm. These regions update automatically, depending on operating conditions and any variation in the sand production rate gets detected in the field. Compare to physical erosion monitor equipment which is typically installed at limited locations (e.g., wellhead) to provide erosion rate, this digital solution provides real-time erosion rate anywhere in the entire production network. Thus, it empowers the operators to better assess the erosion risks, allowing them to take the necessary corrective actions to mitigate or prevent failure. Currently, this is deployed at various fields with European and Asian operators, the advisory program is positively impacting OPEX by reducing downtime through early intervention and increasing uptime through real-time surveillance. New methods, combining field data, simulation data with data analytics, this automated SDECA are developed with the aim to provide faster and precise digital solutions to enhance field surveillance and pipeline integrity. This paper will also describe these methods’ development and how they have improved with time using past experiences.