1. SPE Introduction to Exploration and Production :
Field Development / Facilities Engineering

2. Field Development / Facilities Engineering
What oil and gas facilities do
How they work
What the main issues typically encountered are

3. What Oil and Gas Facilities do
Transport well fluids from the well to a processing facility
Separate products (oil and gas) from waste streams (water, sand & other contaminants)
Treat oil and gas to meet the sales requirements
Treat waste streams to meet the disposal requirements (environmental)
Deliver products to the market

4. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Understanding “well fluids”
The nature of the well fluids will be a significant factor in the design of the facilities
Well fluids are a mixture of liquid & gaseous hydrocarbons, mixed with other gasses, water, sand and other contaminants
Product specifications impact facility design and can vary significantly
There is usually uncertainty in the composition and flow rates of the well fluids
Light crude and gas condensates
Oil sands.
Heavy oil

5. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Move well fluids to a processing facility - pipelines
Land access (ROW / easement)
Environmental impact (surveys)
Design
Flow assurance
hydrates
scales
wax
Chemical injection / insulation
Geo-technical, environmental
Pressure (flow) boosting
Mechanical

6. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Move oil and gas from wells to a processing facility

7. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Separate products from waste streams
Gas out
Mixed gas / oil / water in
Oil out
Water out

8. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Separate products from waste streams
After simple separation products will still contain impurities
Some well fluids are difficult to separate and require additional processing (e.g. heating / chemicals)
Waste streams (water / sand) typically contaminated with oil
Oil product may have % “BSW” specification (basic sediment and water)

9. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat Oil : De-salt
Water produced with oil is often saturated brine
Salt damages refinery equipment and maybe deposited inside equipment causing blockages
Fresh water is mixed with the separated crude oil
Salt dissolves in the fresh water
Oil and water are then separated (again) with the salt staying in the water

10. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat Oil : Stabilise
“Stabilise” oil
Oil contains gas which may be released if the pressure or temperature changes
This must be removed so it can be stored / transported safely

11. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat Oil : Stabilise
Reduce pressure to atmospheric and allow time for gas to separate
( Compressing gas from low pressure is very expensive)
Heat oil, under pressure, to “boil off” the gas
(Maintains the well pressure so less compression is needed)

12. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat Gas : remove contaminants (simplified)
Separated / wellhead gas may contain contaminants
Water, “Sour” or “Acid” gases (H2S / CO2), others
Contaminant
Typical (simplified) continuous contaminant removal process
Gas is mixed with absorbent
(Glycol for water)
(Amine for H2S / CO2)
Contaminant is absorbed
Gas is cleaned
Absorbent is “regenerated”
– typically by heating
Clean Gas Out
Clean
Absorbent
Contaminated Gas in
Contaminated Absorbent

13. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat Gas : remove contaminants (simplified)
Clean Gas
Out
Contaminant
Typical (simplified) batch contaminant removal process
Gas passes over absorbent
(e.g. Silica gel for water)
Contaminant is absorbed “cleaning” the gas
Absorbent maybe “regenerated” often by heating
2 or more units operating, one cleaning and one regenerating. Change over when absorbent saturated.
Some Absorbents are replaced and re-cycled by the vendor - not regenerated in-situ
Absorbent
cleaning
gas
Absorbent being regenerated
Contaminated Gas in

14. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat gas : control heating value
Gas is usually burned as a fuel
Sold on “heating value” i.e. How much energy it contains
Export gas needs to be in the correct heating value (HV) range
If the HV too high customers equipment maybe damaged
If the HV too low customers equipment may not work reliably
Difficult (expensive) to adjust HV
If HV too low - remove inert gases
If HV too high - reduce LPG content
LPG extraction

15. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat gas : reduce LPG content (simplified)
Outlet gas
Turbo expander
Gas is compressed using power from the Turbine.
Separator
LPG condenses as gas gets colder and is separated
Turbo expander
Gas is expanded in a Turbine which makes it colder.
LPG
Inlet gas
(with LPG)
Separator
LPG condenses as gas cools in the heat exchanger and is separated
Heat exchanger
Inlet gas is cooled by
Cold Outlet gas
LPG

16. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat waste streams – produced water
Disposal requirements
Environmental permitting
Quality constraints – reinjection
Quantity – can be multiples of oil production
Oil removal
Separators, Centrifuges, cyclones, stripping columns, membranes, chemicals
Scale formation (low level radioactivity)
Saltwater can be difficult to dispose of onshore

17. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Treat waste streams – gas contaminants
Disposal requirements
Environmental permitting
Burning H2S results in SOx emissions
H2S can be reduced to Sulphur
Sulphur disposal
Sulphur recovery unit
Sulphur “storage”

18. What Oil and Gas facilities do
Deliver products to the market
Oil
Pipeline
Tanker
Rail
Road
Power generation
Gas
LNG (CNG / GTL)

19. Field Development Understanding the development process
Is there enough resource
for a development ?
Has the best development concept been selected ?
Has the concept been optimised ?
Appraise
Concept Select
Concept Optimisation DG DG DG
Has the end of economic production been reached ?
Final investment decision
Is the venture ready to start up ?
Define
Execute
Operate
Abandon DG DG DG
Staged process with “decision gates” between each stage
Maximise value from the sub-surface

20. Field Development Understanding a development
Facility interface with reservoir
Production profiles
Drawdown constraints
Pressure support requirements
Number and type of wells
Market size and location
Export routes
Gas and water constraints
Contract terms
Schedule / Timing (early production potential)
Economics

21. Development Engineering Considerations
Understanding the scale of a development
Small scale (low upfront cost) may have better economics
Development costs are location specific
Local experience
Maturity of market
Availability of resources
Labour productivity

22. Development Engineering Considerations
How will it be built (and abandoned)
Available skills
Training
Local content
Safety standards
Labour relations
Offshore
Barge availability
Fabrication location
Operations support / supply base
Onshore
Infrastructure / site access

23. Development Options - Technical
Typical decisions required
Facility location(s)
Number and type of wells
Process selection
Capacity
Number of trains
Approach to construction
Future expansion provision
Infrastructure requirements
Operating / maintenance philosophies
Approach to risk
Provision for future abandonment

24. Development Engineering Considerations
External factors
Safety
Stakeholders
Environment
Local community
Social impact
Market
Political stability
Geographic location
Competing projects
Site availability / Land access
Construction resource / capability

25. Interfaces with Development Engineering
The following all influence the approach to a development:
Production profiles & compositions (Reservoir Engineering)
Pressure support requirements (Reservoir Engineering)
Well design and drilling schedule / locations (Drilling Engineering)
Market availability / location / rates for products (Marketing dept / Market research / Customers)
Contract terms (Legal department)
Tax regime (Tax / legal department)
Waste disposal constraints (Environmental / legal department)
Land Access (Land / legal departments)
Operations Philosophies (Operation / Maintenance Departments)
HSE requirements (HSE department)
CSR requirements (CSR / legal department)

26. Development Engineering
Key lessons
Understand the uncertainty in the sub-surface data
Design for a range of scenarios
Iteration often required
Make and stick to decisions
There will be compromises
Uncertainty in available data means that continuous “optimisation” is usually counter productive
Understand the nature and scale of the development
Consider all the options, not just the preferred base case
Engage and manage all key stakeholders

27. Development Engineering
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