Course Objectives
- The main objective of this course is to increase the efficiency in the production and transportation of heavy crude oil areas and reduce significantly the high cost of producing and transporting high viscosity crude oil.
- Maintain sufficient local underground natural gas storage capacity and have in place additional supply sources such as LNG and propane air to meet large shifts in daily demand, thereby minimizing capacity reservation costs on the supplying pipeline.
- This course is an introduction comprehensive study of heavy oil transportation. Experience in the production of heavy crude oils has demonstrated that the majority of conventional production systems and treatments are highly inefficient. The production, treatment, storage and fluid transference through pipelines of high viscosity crude oils are associated to severe and costly technical problems.
Who Should Attend?
- Engineers
- Managers
- Surface facilities design and operation engineers
- Production staff
- Anyone who is or will be responsible for heavy oil gathering and transport system
Course Content
Day 1
Heavy Oil field process
- Field process
- Production process and transport
- Production system
- Nodal analysis
Single phase equation in pipelines
- Reynolds transport principles
- Continuity Equation
- Momentum’s equation
- Single phase flow
- Fluid flow equations
Day 2
Isothermal flow in pipeline
- Incompressible single phase flow
- Flow parameter estimation: pressure, flow, and diameter
- Minor pressure loss in accessories and valves
- Impact of some parameter in the energy requirement
- Pumps in the pipeline system
Temperature profile in pipeline
- Explicit model
- For incompressible fluid
- For compressible fluid
- For Multiphase flow 21
- Implicit model
- Peng – Robinson Equation of State
Day 3
Crude oil diluents
- Impact of the dilution on the density and viscosity
- Impact of the dilution on density and viscosity of the mixture
- Impact of the dilution on the pressure requirement
- Optimum amount of diluents based on hydraulic analysis
- Booster stations
- Impact on pipeline diameter
- Effect of the mixture quality
- Effect of the topography of the terrain
Heavy oil transport using heat
- Hydraulic behavior on heated pipeline
- Characteristic behavior of some heavy oil
- Study case and premises for hydraulic study
- Thermal- hydraulic analysis to the pipeline
Day 4
Water-crude oil transport
- Water distributed in crude oil phase
- Physical properties and pressure drop
- Two phase flow: different model
Gas-liquid flow in gathering system
- Correlations: Flanigan, Dukler et al, Beggs & Brill, Oliemans, etc
- Effect of gas on the properties of the liquid phase
- Flow effect on the gas phase
- Mechanistic models: Xio’s Method
- Gas-Liquid flow in the production system
Day 5
Basic equations for gathering network
- Series system
- Parallel system
- Branched system
- Gathering network: open, closed,
- Equations for gathering network
Gathering network structure
- Introduction to the gathering network
- Topography of the network
- Generation of dendrite in the network
