Hydrocarbon production with sand through subsea tree and steel catenary (SCR) riser w. FourPhase
Gulf of Mexico, 2020
FP-1080

A major American Operator is experiencing solids production in multiple subsea wells on one of its platforms. Due to the inefficiency of the solids and water handling equipment on board high producing wells had been shut-in due to sand production. Governmental environment restrictions in the Gulf of Mexico require the produced water to be processed before re-injecting or overboarding. Due to the high sand production and poor management sand that was produced to the water treatment plant could not function and high producing wells were shut-in with a significant loss in revenue as a result.

Case study video

A topside DualFlow 5K PSI production enhancement unit was installed on the platform. Production was brought topside using a steel catenary (SCR) riser system. Erosion was considered but due to the riser diameter and speed on particles deemed ok. The system’s small footprint (HxWxD) 10.9x6.6x6.6 ft and low weight 19 000 lb was considered attractive to use as a retrofit desander due to the current insufficient solids management system. The desander was placed topside, downstream of the (subsea) wellhead and upstream of the test-separator and filter package.

The FourPhase production enhancement unit was installed to produce the “Devil’s Wells” named due to the massive amounts of sand and oil they produced. FourPhase was, and are, the only supplier to date who has been able to manage these subsea wells.

There has been a 10% overall production increase as a result of bringing these wells back to production. In numbers, this means an increase of 6 000 bbl/day to date with a production over 167 days (and Zero downtime). This has generated $ 30MUSD of additional profit to the operator. Other project results include:

• All sand is continuously produced ensuring an always clean wellbore
• Significant decrease in POB, from 9 to 4 operators.
• Equipment tonnage reduction (replacing coiled tub and water treatment)
• Reduced wear in production chokes and downstream process facility
• Reduced downtime for wells due to ASR restrictions and plugging
• Accommodates for tail production in mature fields, increased water cut leads to higher flowrates to gain oil from the reservoir, this will again lead to higher solids production
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