Given the presence of water in oil and gas producing wells, corrosion in the piping is a problem that must be mitigated. Producers inject chemicals into the production stream to minimize the oxidation process. The cost of these chemicals can have an impact on the overall performance of the offshore platform or onshore production field, especially in this era of lower oil prices.
In this quick 2:18 video, Optimizing Well Chemical Injection through Flow Assurance, Emerson’s Laura Schafer describes how to reduce the cost of the chemicals and overall operating expenses by not injecting more than is required to prevent corrosion.
Laura notes that when oil prices were higher, it was not as much of an issue if producers were over-injecting chemicals. Producers over-injected because the cost of under-injecting could be catastrophic in terms of safety, environmental incidents and downtime.
This over-injection could be by up to 20% more than is required. One oil and gas producer shared that this over-injection cost them up to $2 million USD per year—for a single well. In this instance, they did not have confidence in the reliability of their measurement and control system.
An effective flow control solution relies on three things—monitoring, control and management. To know how much chemical to inject, producers need continuous visibility to changes in the flow production.
Laura shares ways to improve monitoring including continuous corrosion monitoring, continuous downhole pressure and temperature measurement, and continuous multiphase measurement of production flow rates and compositions. These continuous measurements provide confidence for how much chemical to inject.
Combined with distributed control systems or SCADA systems, the chemical injection process can operate under closed loop control. These systems also provide remote access to effective manage chemical injection across many production areas and geographies.
You can connect and interact with other oil & gas and flow experts in the Oil & Gas and Flow groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
