Hassle-Free Energy Production on Cruise Control 

GATE Energy was responsible for pre-commissioning, commissioning, regulatory testing and vendor management for all Topsides systems of the King’s Quay FPU, both in South Korea and the United States / Gulf of Mexico. Viking, the engineering arm of GATE Energy, was contracted to assist with the development of the topsides standard operating procedures (SOPs).

An independent oil operator experienced four back-to-back casing failures in his Oklahoma shale program. These current failures and setbacks were eating into his budget and eroding stakeholder faith in the ability to complete wells.

His initial comment was, “I’m not getting any sleep – I need some help. You’ve got to help me stop the leaks!”

Led study for independent oil and gas operator regarding the injection of flue gases from Gulf coast power plants to a Deepwater development for the purposes of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This considered pretreatment and processing requirements for flue gases from natural gas-fired boiler plants, natural gas combined cycle plants, coal-fired boiler plants and integrated gasification combined cycle plants. Key issues considered were the ability of the pretreatment system to remove oxygen and water.

GATE was responsible for developing the overall Aseng Water Injection System Basis of Design.

GATE was requested to determine the potential risks involved in waterflood for the Neptune and Shenzi fields as a means to determine whether waterflood was a viable option for enhanced oil recovery. Based on this, GATE developed a waterflood philosophy document that details the problems and possible mitigation procedures for BHP’s use in determining whether or not to waterflood.

GATE provided in-house production chemistry support for the Horn Mountain, Atlantis and Thunder Horse assets.

GATE undertook a chemical vendor qualification process on behalf of Noble to procure the best suited chemical and chemical support for both the Aseng and Alen assets based on their fluids, and system along with their specific operational needs.

GATE leverages each chemical vendors based on performance of chemical, lab, ability to meet supply demands and upsets, price, experience and key criteria important to contractor and operator.

GATE undertook a rigorous qualification process on behalf of the client to BHP to procure the best suited chemicals and chemical support for both the Neptune and Shenzi assets based on their fluids, and system along with their specific operational needs.

BP Pipeline oversees the operation of 9 total oil and gas export systems from more than 20 different platforms in the GoM. The pipeline systems transport almost half-million barrels of oil and hundreds of MMSCF of gas daily from the producing platforms to onshore processing facilities.

The FAMP has been developed for BP Pipeline assets to ensure proper working of the high volume systems by organizing and delegating between operators, facilities, laboratories and onshore offices. By facilitating the review of system performance and operation, this information provides the basis of a continuous improvement approach.

As part of the scope of work, GATE was commissioned to develop two comprehensive, user-friendly screening tools to guide subsea flowline materials selection decisions for wet gas and waterflood during concept selection and design using field specific data.

GATE undertook an investigation into recovered, decommissioned equipment to determine both the cause of failure and investigate integrity of components that may not have failed. This information has proven invaluable to operators who can base the performance of other equipment of a similar type and construction in a similar environment. This was significant as the recovered materials ranged from the mud-line, to sea surface and topsides.

GATE provides Shell with cathodic protection design support for all their subsea projects. This includes coating selection (anti-corrosion and flow assurance) and qualification, which also involves interfacing with the coating yard. An important aspect of this operation is carrying out comprehensive quality audits of anode foundries and coating plants around the world.

GATE determined the risks and mitigation of risk associated with wet parking and flooding of a gas export pipeline with unfiltered seawater. The key concerns are corrosion due to microbes, oxygen corrosion, and drying to prevent hydrate formation when the pipe goes into service.

GATE undertook erosion and corrosion modeling in the flowline to develop sand production allowance and an erosion corrosion risk assessment. From this, a maximum rate of gas production that will allow the asset to maintain it design life was determined. This enabled the operator to safely increase production by 25% to without additional risk to the asset thereby increasing the Net Present Value of the asset.

GATE was responsible for formulating a detailed flow assurance strategy for the successful operation of Juniper production system. The project involved extensive cross-functional interaction, detailed study of the lessons learnt from similar fields in the region (offshore Trinidad), simulating a wide variety of what-if scenarios (both steady state and transient) to draft the flow assurance strategy and operability logic for optimized production.

GATE was involved in formulating the strategy for hot oil circulation and pigging operations for Chissonga. The hot oil circulation study involved optimization of the hot oil injection pressures and temperatures required to displace the cold dead leg in the pigging loop following an extended shutdown. The pigging study involved optimizing the pigging frequency, topsides injection pressures and pig velocities taking into account the production function for the entire life of the field.

The project involved detailed steady state and transient modeling and analysis of gas and oil production systems. Strategies were developed for pigging based on the liquid dropout pattern and fluid velocities.

Phase envelopes of the individual gas streams and gas-mixtures were studies in detail using the software PVTSIM and optimum operating pressures and temperatures were suggested to minimize the liquid drop out.

GATE was responsible for the flow assurance modeling to support Detailed Engineering, Final Commissioning and Startup and Operations Readiness for the Aseng Development. This included steady-state and transient modeling of the production, gas injection, and water injection systems.

GATE was approached by Tullow to provide a detailed view of the several options available in the industry for remediation of hydrate plugs in oil and gas lines, merits and demerits of each strategy and their applicability to the Jubilee field. The project also involves developing detailed procedures for hydrate remediation/removal for Jubilee considering the available topsides and subsea infrastructure.

GATE was involved in performing studies on the gas export line at different flowrates and platform pressures using the transient analysis software OLGA®. This includes calculation of the gas compressor requirements considering the characteristic curves and limitation on the compressor power) was calculated for a fixed export pipe ID.

Developed an integrate-able tool for operator to proactively monitor well operations real-time to identify potential cause of suboptimal production and possible well integrity issues.

Developed a standalone tool for the operator to perform tubing/tree material screening based on the field specific reservoir fluids, well configuration and operating conditions.

Developed an integrate-able tool to accurately calculate the leak rate of SCSSV which considers the existence of liquid and gas in the wellbore, wellbore cooldown and USV leak during the routine SCSSV test.

Developed and supported the integration of the flowline virtual metering system utilizing the GATE Prho™ engine.

After an in-line inspection of a pipeline in West Africa, a client discovered significant wall loss in the first three miles of the line. The tool also returned significant wax deposits, casting doubt on the current wax management efforts in place.

The wells producing to the pipeline historically produced H2S; however, the worst offenders were shut-in quickly after it was discovered that they were producing extremely high concentrations of the sour gas.

As part of a recent asset acquisition due diligence, GATE was asked to deliver a third party review of the condition of the asset and remaining production life of a floating production system and a fixed jacket.

GATE developed a standardized work process to evaluate the current condition, potential production bottlenecks and future operating expenditure (OPEX) associated with the brown-field producing asset.

During the fabrication of the subsea boarding valve skid for a major offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the fabricator purchased several large forgings. These large forgings, from 8” to 12” in diameter, were to be machined into block valve bodies rated to 15,000 psig. As part of the agreed-upon Inspection and Test Plan, the mill certificates for the forgings were reviewed by the fabricator and by the company inspector.