An Overview of Flow Assurance Heat Management Systems in Subsea Flowlines

Abstract

The enormous cost of handling the challenges of flow assurance in subsea wells, flowlines, and risers, especially in deepwater applications, has necessitated a proactive approach to prevent their risk of occurrence. To ensure that transportation of the hydrocarbon is economical and efficient from the subsea wellhead to the processing units, a flow assurance heat management system is relevant in the design and planning of a fluid transport system. Consequently, the advancement of new technologies to serve the increasing need by exploring the technologically challenging and hostile subsea fields is of great importance. A comparative study on heat management systems in flowlines was conducted from the top five publishers (Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and Sage) based on the number of publications to determine the level of work done by researchers in the last decade, the figures from the study showed the need for scientific research in the field of active heating. Additionally, a review was implemented to ascertain the likely advantages and drawbacks of each technique, its limitations concerning field applications and then recommend suitable cost-effective technique(s). The active heating system gives the most cost-effective solution for subsea deepwater fields.