Integrity Management of Offshore Process Piping and Equipment with Sand Production – Part II: Remediations

Abstract

Abstract Sand production is challenging integrity issue that should be monitored to prevent interruption in the oil and gas production facilities. On the other hand, the limitations in the offshore platforms can contribute to the failure in the production system due to sand erosion. The objective of this study is to establish a practical framework of monitoring and a tool for generating Integrity Operating Window (IOW) thresholds, which are used for handling sand production in most safe and effective manner. The ultimate goal is to obtain the highest possible production output from producing wells while minimizing sand erosion related risks to as low as a reasonably practical level. The recommended monitoring measures of sand production, production rate and wall thickness are discussed as a part of sand management system. CFD-based models and mechanistic models are additional tools that can enhance this procedure. Erosion simulations of pipe walls indicated that the cushion tees that have replaced the piping with bends to prevent/reduce erosion rates are also susceptible to significant erosion. Therefore, wall thickness measurements are being conducted at critical locations. A simplified mechanistic model was employed to support developing sand erosion IOW prediction tool and determining monitoring locations, provided that a process for wall thickness measurements at critical locations is in place for verifying and fine tuning the models on regular basis.