Paul Ravenscroft, BP Sunbury, UK
Taurt gas field development in Egypt’s East Nile Delta area is the first subsea tie-back to shore project in BP portfolio. Phase 1 of the project comprises of three subsea wells located at 108 m water depth, which are capable of producing up to 230 MMscfd via 72 km 20-inch pipeline to shore.
The paper focuses on the development of operating philosophy to assure gas deliverability for 17 years life of field. The philosophy was mainly developed based on pipeline transient simulations to address flow assurance issues related to managing hydrates and liquid holdup in the multiphase pipeline.
Continuous injection of low dosage hydrate inhibitor is required during winter time prior to compression. Cooldown time is estimated to be 7 days, which should give enough time for operators to react during an unplanned shutdown. During an extended shutdown the pipeline needs to be depressurized to 50 bara or less to stay outside the hydrate condition. During cold restart from an un-controlled shutdown, methanol needs to be injected prior to restart to inhibit the water left in the pipeline.
The minimum acceptable gas rate through the pipeline is 100 MMscfd. Maintaining the pipeline above this rate will prevent excessive liquid build up and allow quick production ramp up.
In addition to these design aspects, the paper will discuss experiences from recent start-up of the multiphase pipeline system.
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