STABILIZATION OF MULTIPHASE HYDROCARBON FLOW IN OIL AND GAS GATHERING PIPELINES IN FIELDS WITH COMPLEX TOPOGRAPHY

Vollständiger Abstract

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Integrated oil and gas gathering and transportation systems have become widely used in the development of remote fields. These areas are often characterized by significant logistical and infrastructural constraints. When organizing joint collection of oil and gas via field gathering pipelines at oil and gas, as well as oil and gas condensate fields, certain factors may arise that adversely affect the stable transportation of multiphase hydrocarbon flows to wellstream treatment facilities.This creates tasks whose solutions are aimed at maintaining the stable operation of field pipelines.The article examines factors that have a negative impact on the stable transportation of multiphase hydrocarbon flows to wellstream treatment facilities in oil and gas gathering pipelines at oil and gas, as well as oil and gas condensate fields equipped with integrated oil and gas gathering systems.The paper presents an analysis of the theoretical fundamentals of multiphase flow regimes. An innovative method is proposed for stabilizing multiphase hydrocarbon flows in oil and gas gathering pipelines in fields with complex terrain, based on the principle of reverse involvement of extracted gas in the hydrocarbon flow. The method uses intratube separation devices (ITSD) to extract excess gas at crest points and gas injection units (GIU) to return gas to the main flow in downsloping sections without removing it from the system. Based on the analysis of flow regimes (slug, pulsating, and stratified) in oil and gas gathering pipelines with a high gas–oil ratio and significant differences in geodetic elevation, it has been determined that the proposed method of gas withdrawal with subsequent re‑injection ensures a transition from an unsteady slug flow regime to a stable emulsion flow regime and reduces the risk of unstable flow regimes in pipeline networks at oil and gas, as well as oil and gas condensate fields with complex terrain.