Industrial Pumps Blog

Crude oil transportation is a serious issue with oil fields located in remote locations, and as resources become harder to find, this will be an increasingly challenging factor in effective upstream operations. The distance and widely varied environments which require extensive design work for increasingly complex pipe networks. Monitoring and managing oil and gas pipeline networks requires sophisticated techniques and highly specialized expertise to ensure uptime and performance meet operational requirements and maintain company performance.

The single most important factor which has pushed to the fore of upstream operations and crude oil transportation issues is the consumption of energy.

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Crude oil is likely to have traveled several thousand miles and undergone various processes and treatments before it is suitable for delivery to a customer. Oil fields are often in remote places and crude oil has to pass through highly complex pipeline networks on its journey. It can be transported by oil tankers by land and sea. All these methods consume substantial energy and increase costs considerably by the time the crude oil is refined.

There are several challenges facing the oil industry:

• Reducing the cost of energy consumption between oil field and oil-refinery
• Reducing the cost of overall maintenance and operating procedures
• Reducing the environmental impact.

These challenges have to be dealt with effectively with while ensuring that improvements are made to the process. Improvements have taken place, helped by increasing competition amongst oil producers, but cost reductions must take place and the industry needs to look at ways to streamline its operation an increase its efficiency.

One of the major cost areas is the crude oil pumping systems. They are essential for moving oil across land and under water, but many are outdated, inefficient and often fail. This results in it being an area that could vastly be improved therefore producing a reduction in energy consumption and associated costs.

If pumping systems are improved profitability increases. Efficient pumping systems use far less energy and this automatically makes the process more environmentally friendly. Additional benefits from using efficient pumping systems include reduced breakdowns and fewer maintenance requirements resulting in more oil getting from the oil fields to the oil-refineries.

Upgrading highly expensive pumping systems involves substantial initial investment, but the future returns to oil producers will more than pay-back the investment. Building new pumping systems takes time and cannot be achieved overnight. Forethought and planning are required then ultimately oil transportation costs can fall.

Multiphase or tri-phase pumping solutions are commonly found in oil and gas fields and their application is increasing as a direct consequence of increases in drilling operations.  Multiphase pumping solutions allow for simplification of the upstream drilling operation and also provide for smaller and less costly pumping installations.

Typically, a multiphase solution will deal with all of the fluid stream characteristics using an integrated piece of machinery instead of using different, discrete equipment units.  It is usual to find twin-multiphase units in operation rather than a single, larger installation and it is not uncommon to find three-multiphase units installed in series.

Multiphase solutions also find application in midstream and upstream operations, both onshore and offshore and may be serve single or multiple wellheads.

Multiphase solutions are used to transfer crude oil and gas from the wellhead to the downstream facilities, either for further processing or in the storage farm.  The multiphase solution is capable of managing anything from 100% gas through to 100% fluid and intermediate mixtures, which may also incidentally contain abrasive detritus, such as sand from the operation as well as managing varying flow and pressure rates.  However, a major environmental attraction is that multiphase solutions substantially reduce the emission of pollutants, particularly greenhouse gases by reducing the requirement for tank venting and flaring of excess gases.

There are five main categories of multiphase pumps:

• Twin Screw – Positive Displacement (PD) – comprises twin, intermeshed screws which find common pumping application for high-gas content product or where there are fluctuating input rates;
• Helio-Axial Pumps – Centrifugal – sometimes referred to as the Poseidon Pump, this uses one rotodynamic pump operating along a single shaft;
• Progressive Cavity – PD – used in shallow or surface wells where fluids may have a high solid content (typically sand or earth);
• Buffer Tank – this is usually found upstream and eradicates variable input flow rates and also reduces the level of solid detritus in the fluid stream; and
• Electric Submersible – Centrifugal – typically used when the liquids are being pumped and are used to provide artificial lift.

Crude oil is a heavy, viscous liquid which is required to be transported from some of the most extreme and harshest environments on the planet.  Not only must crude oil transfer pumps and components be reliable and capable of withstanding environmental considerations, but the application of technology must also be appropriate to ensure smooth functioning of the pumping solution.

To achieve effective and safe operation, both the industrial pump supplier and oil operator must work closely together.

Industrial pump suppliers must be capable of delivering a broad range of pumping solutions backed by in-depth application experience.  Oil operations typically tend to be conducted in remote locations, and this aspect of oil exploration and acquisition is only likely to continue to intensify.  Oil operation isolation demands that all aspects of the technology used are robust and capable of high-availability and short maintenance cycles in order to minimize plant downtime and costs.

Oil operators are increasingly turning to suppliers who can offer a collaborative approach beyond simply delivering lower TCO’s or high reliability.  Transfer of expert and specialist knowledge from the supplier to the operator’s team is increasingly viewed as essential in order to maximize in-house utility of resources (which avoids the need to engage external, highly paid consultants and specialist third-parties for maintenance operations).  In addition, by pursuing a collaborative approach to delivering robust pumping solutions, a well of experience is built up within the client operator for use in future projects which in turn reduces overall company costs even further.

There are discrete project benefits from engaging in a collaborative approach for both partners; not oil fields are equal, and the product’s physical properties can vary significantly from field to field.  By working together on the unique crude oil product from the field in question, a unique optimal solution is more likely to be identified and implemented.  This can, and does result in significant increases in overall profitability and productivity of the field.

The last Presidential election encompassed the debate over whether to commence offshore drilling operations in our territorial waters in order to reduce our reliance on overseas oil producers.  Whatever the eco-political debate on drilling off our shores, it is a reality that the Gulf of Mexico presents significant engineering challenges and is a prime oil production region for the United States and the world.

The Gulf has seen a rapid expansion in the number of drilling platforms which is set to continue given the increased efforts at uncovering hidden reserves.  The spate of hurricanes over the last few years did create a block on oil and gas production, however this has been reversed and production now exceeds the 2006 production numbers (470 million barrels of oil).

The principal challenge facing operators is the effective operation of deeper wells in the shallow water zone, typically operated by chemical injection.  Shallow water projects are those which take place within 1,000 feet of water while deep-water projects are in excess of this.  Gas drilling operations further split shallow water operations using the TVD (true vertical depth) of the production field and the water depth.

The main problem is the formation of hydrates which will result in costly platform shutdowns.  The increased pressure due to deeper wells, low sea temperatures and extremely lengthy tie-backs all mitigate in favor of extensive hydrate formation.

Another issue is the environmental implications of drilling operations in such as sensitive area.  Oil and gas production utilize equipment and raw materials which will result in severe environmental impact should there be an accidental discharge.  Handling harsh and toxic raw materials requires robust and reliable storage and pumping solutions together with secure redundancy and fail-safe systems.

Finally, there is the harsh environment posed by the salt water sea.  This is highly corrosive, however there is another issue posed by the salt-water environment.  Methanol use produces very hard, abrasive rust particles which will cause severe damage to pumping mechanisms.  Countering this are the pumping systems transferring the range of chemicals to counteract the impact of the environment upon the drilling infrastructure.

Transporting millions of barrels of oil thousands of miles, from remote oil fields to refining centers, is a highly energy intensive process.  From oil well to the end-refinery, the oil passes along a complex pipeline and through various processing plants and tank farms as the various separation and treatment centers until it is ultimately a finished product ready for transport to the customer.

This is a very costly process in terms of energy consumption.

The challenge is four-fold – how to reduce energy consumption costs; how to maintain and improve operation uptime; how to reduce other operating costs e.g. maintenance; and how to reduce the associated carbon footprint.

Ten years ago, the challenge was simply how to keep the process running with minimal disruption – energy costs had little if any impact, but times have changed dramatically.

In today’s operating environments, energy is very expensive.  Increased competitive pressures mean companies have to seek out further cost reductions by seeking greater efficiencies elsewhere in the operation.

The driving center of the oil pipeline network is the pumping system used to move oil across vast distances and in the harshest environments on the planet, on land and under the sea.  It is the pumping systems which are the major consumers of energy and should be the focus of cost reduction measures.

By ensuring constituent pumping systems are energy efficient, significant cost reductions can be achieved in terms of energy usage.  This helps increase profitability and carbon footprint reduction to meet environmental targets, now and in the future.  Additionally, by reducing the time-to-failure rates and increasing the length of the maintenance cycle, operators can improve pipeline network uptime and create further significant operating cost reductions.