Technology Focus: Production and Facilities (December 2020)

The notion of reducing our environmental footprint, minimizing leaks and spillages, and identifying operational efficiencies is nothing new. We have been addressing these issues for years. Sustainability, however, has gained a higher profile recently, especially since the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change accord and the evolution of alternative energies. It came, therefore, as a pleasant surprise to review an extraordinary wealth of well-written papers relating not only to this topic, but to all manner of fascinating engineering issues. Let me back up a bit. For 6 years, I have provided commentary concerning matters relating to reservoir simulation. This was often illuminating, but my primary interest has always been in full-field modeling: coupling our models for flow in porous media, wellbore, network, and to facilities. I firmly believe that unified full-field modeling can furnish benefits both operationally and economically. In accepting the challenge to write this, however, I did not expect to encounter the extraordinary breadth of topics covered. Saying that, one clear thread did emerge from the articles reviewed - namely reliability, emissions control, and energy saving and monitoring, all of which relate to sustainability in one way or another. Novel methods for valve- failure prediction, pipeline coatings, floating storage tank roof optimization, and the use of drones (from spray painting to surveillance) along with robots for unmanned installations were all topics represented in the papers provided me. Paper SPE 198165 is an informative overview of alternative fuels and how these may affect Middle East production; however, this should appeal to a wider readership because it reviews alternative energies nicely. Paper IPTC 19775 provides a means to better quantify separator shrinkage, which can result in errors in stock-tank rates up to 20% (essential if one is to quantify unit energy consumption accurately). Paper SPE 197759 proposes methods for energy savings. These papers represent but a small sample of a broader swath of articles from the past year relating to this catch-all term “sustainability.” Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 197753 Parametric Study on Wind Fatigue Life of Long Span Flare-Boom Based on Directional Input Parameters to Harris Wind Spectra and Selection of Wind Blocks by Sachin Samant, National Petroleum Construction Company, et al. SPE 198133 Internal Corrosion Severity Ranking of Crude Oil Pipelines by Amer Jaragh, Kuwait Oil Company, et al. SPE 197620 Ground Robotics Enabler for Normally Unattended Installations by Jean-Michel Munoz, Total, et al.