Until recently, single skin flowlines were practically limited to short and medium length flowlines. To achieve longer flowline lengths with acceptable fluid outlet temperatures, it was common to rely on pipe-in-pipe (PIP) technology. However, PIP is comparatively difficult to manufacture, difficult to install, difficult to repair and all around more expensive than single skin flowlines. Recent advancements in flowline burial have demonstrated that buried and coated (B&C) flowlines have thermal properties that make single-skin pipe systems feasible for many projects thought possible only with PIP. The key parameter for such beneficial thermal properties of B&C systems is soil thermal conductivity. Recent insitu and laboratory investigations have discovered that the thermal conductivity of deepwater soils is far better than previously anticipated. B&C systems can provide the required steady state outlet temperatures for many long flowline systems at a fraction of the cost of equivalent PIP systems. In addition, due to their heat effected zone, the cool-down rates for B&C systems are far greater relative to PIP systems. This paper presents some of the new found thermal properties of B&C systems and the steady state and transient performance benefits such properties provide to oil/gas flowlines.
Flowline burial: an economic alternative to pipe-in-pipe
2000
4 Seiten, 6 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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