Flow Assurance in the Oil Industry

The gas and water injected to stimulate an increase in the extraction and production of oil can produce gas and sediments that alter significantly the life span of the flow lines, process equipments, and production tanks.

With the optimization of the implicit processes of oil production, oil’s flow assurance has become a key element to predict, prevent, mitigate, and remove organic and inorganic deposits. This engineer process analyses, secures, and guarantees efficient and economic transportation of hydrocarbons from the fields to the extraction and distribution points.

With the support of various disciplines like hydraulic, thermodynamic, chemistry and software engineer, it can be prevented harmful effects like corrosion and erosion that affect the flow and transportation of fluid, which constitutes the heart and soul of oil production.

To achieve such end, the content levels of CO2, paraffin deposits, hydrates, asphaltenes and incrustations are analyzed. While the fluids are transported to the production facility, changes in pressure and temperature can lead to formation, accumulation, and dispersion of organic and inorganic solid materials, as well as liquid and gas bags that can cause plugging at any stage of the hydrocarbon’s distribution system.

Flow assurance was used for the first time by the Brazilian company, PetroBras, in the 90’s, and it was used only in deep waters. It later became a method that attended more than corrective processes; it allowed predicting and attending flow issues to avoid possible damages, interruption of the processes, and posterior high costs.



The preventive factor of flow assurance has gain special importance because it allows the optimization of the production process at any stage, including starts, stops, and blockages. It is usually used as a chemical inhibitor to maintain the formation of incrustations and the production of the field; this goes from the basic dilution methods to more advance methods with effective inhibitor the act even before the process begins.

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