Subsea Systems Engineering Course Program
Course hours:
Day 1: 8.00 to 17.40
Day 2: 8.30 to 17.55
Day 3: 8.30 to 16.45
Day 4: 8.30 to 13.00
SUBSEA SYSTEMS OVERVIEW (Sasanow)
CONCEPT SELECTION (Loth)
Interfaces: The keys to an integrated subsea system
Various perspectives on the "system." The components of a subsea production system. Production system compatibility. Management of interfaces.
FIELD DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS (Loth)
Economic and risk variations
Economic decision-making: the factors
The cost - schedule - quality triangle. Economic decisions: different results from different operators
ESTABLISHING FIELD ARCHITECTURE - Reservoir, bathymetry, and geohazard considerations (Loth)
Mooring spreads, anchor options-flowline routing vs. mooring spreads. Factors in locating field facilities-tieback, greenfield. Scheduling geohazards surveys. Extended exposure of seafloor equipment.
ESTABLISHING FIELD ARCHITECTURE
Host facility, mooring, and metocean drivers (Loth)
Defining metocean effects-Orientation of floating systems and offloading systems. The impact on riser selection. Suction vs. driven vs. drilled piles. Flexibility is there in mooring design. Mooring interfaces with pipeline and umbilical routing. Host facility-Tieback issues with host facility. Riser additions. Flowline access. Interfacing with existing process plant. Tariffs.
EQUIPMENT SELECTION - Subsea Production Equipment Overview (Fenton)
Design parameters, selection criteria. Drilling, capacity, environmental, and geological considerations. Shallow water flows. Fullbore wellheads. Completion
and production considerations. HP/HT systems. Slimline wells.
EQUIPMENT SELECTION - Trees Overview
(Fenton)
Conventional trees. Horizontal trees. Tree tooling packages. Advantages and disadvantages of tree types. Installation process - pre-drilled vs. drill and
complete. Intervention process.
EQUIPMENT SELECTION - Controls and Umbilicals, Chemical Injection (Douglas)
The variations in control system architecture
"Garbage in-garbage out": the reliability of the entire system. What is comms-on power and is it necessary? Control module location: on manifolds or with the xmas tree. Fiber optics. Umbilical tubing choices: steel vs. elastomer vs. high collapse resistance. Influences on umbilical design. Installation limitations on umbilicals. Umbilical failures and repair issues. Chemical injection.
EQUIPMENT SELECTION (Loth)
Trees and jumper systems
The choices and why similar projects opt for different answers
The disappearance of drilling templates. The thinking behind cluster wells? The great debate: horizontal vs. vertical trees. Experience with annulus pressure control and designing annulus bleed system. Vertical vs. horizontal connection systems. Horizontal vs. vertical jumper systems. Impact of jumper selection on installation times.
ESTABLISHING FIELD ARCHITECTURE Flowlines and risers (Anderson)
Flowlines-Altering well position vs. installing a flowline. Short flowlines in deep water. Flowline installation methods.
Risers-Flexibles: current design limitation: temperature, pressure, diameter, water depth. Steel catenary risers: sensitivities, current capabilities. Riser towers-tethered (Placid type), buoyed (Girassol type), single-leg or stand-alone. Impact of riser selection on, cost, installation scheduling. Common riser problems-VIV, fatigue, clashing, impact of insulation, erosion, impact of seafloor (soil) conditions.
ESTABLISHING FIELD ARCHITECTURE Flow assurance considerations
(Iversen)
Understanding wells, flowlines, and risers as an integrated system. Impact of flow assurance requirements on field development strategy. Thermal and pressure management of transported fluids. Flow assurance phenomena and treatment: hydrates, waxes, asphaltenes, scales, sand production, fluid incompatibility.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS: WHY EQUIPMENT IS DESIGNED THE WAY IT IS (Loth)
The great hydraulic cleanliness tragedy. The valve operator override business. Two master valves and valve breeding.
TECHNICAL VISIT
Plant visit to a major equipment supplier's facility: opportunity to see marine wellheads, subsea xmas trees, controls modules and associated pipeline end manifolds and other subsea hardware.
The technical visit will take place at the manufacturing facility of
one of main subsea hardware suppliers. Students from competing
companies are not normally allowed to attend. In this case a discount/rebate of £100 will be made.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SESSION ARISING FROM PLANT VISIT
DEEPER, HOTTER, LONGER:
THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONS ON EQUIPMENT (Loth)
What is the difference between 400, 4,000 and 10,000 feet? Impact of surface facility choice. Flow assurance issues and the impact of water depth. Deepwater fields, shallow reservoirs: multiple drilling centers. The impact of hydrostatic head on control fluids and modified actuator designs. Running and retrieval times. The installation of heavy structures.
DEEPER, HOTTER, LONGER
High pressure and temperature (HP/HT) designs (Loth)
Impact of temperature on well decision-making and safety: subsea vs. dry trees. 15K components: weight and size considerations. Material selection and the effect of temperatures. HIPPS - high pressure pipeline protection systems "Hard" zones for personnel safety. HIPPS equipment location. System over-design Reliability vs. safety issues.
Long distance tiebacks-Distance limitations. Limiting factors: flowline cost vs. chemical. Life cycle equipment repair philosophy.
SUBSEA ENGINEERING PRACTICE - CASE STUDIES (Loth)
Concept selection-alternatives considered. Rational for selection of FPSO. General state of concept at Preliminary Design Basis stage. Pre-FEED for Independent-Homing in on optimized field architecture. Addressing critical areas: flow assurance, steel catenary risers, FPSO orientation and mooring. Pre-FEED for Major-homing in on optimized field architecture, addressing critical areas, flow assurance, steel catenary risers, FPSO orientation and mooring. FEED-Finalizing seafloor equipment definitions. Riser considerations. GeoHazard impact. Reservoir redefinition. Contracting Strategy. Interface definition.
NEW TECHNOLOGY (Sasanow)
Adopting new technology-What constitutes "new" technology. New technology as a schedule threat. Evaluating new technology. When does technology cease to be new? Reliability and the comfort factor. The economic implications of applying new technology.Risk mitigation.
New technology options-all-electric systems, 'smart' wells, subsea metering, boosting and processing. All electric systems - do electricity and water mix? Environmental problems with deepwater hydraulics. Dynamic control. Subsea processing: the state of play. The reasons for applying intelligent completions: zonal isolation. CAPEX v OPEX considerations.
Technology developments-Power distribution systems. Control systems. Actuators. Subsea metering: subsurface vs. seafloor, the impact on subsea architecture. Subsea boosting: the success to date in deepwater, equipment location, technical options - single vs. multiphase. Power options - hydraulic vs. electrical. Subsea separation: the 'Holy Grail' and the long gestation period.
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