The paper discusses the wide range of issues arising out of the slugging problems experienced in a 36 km. long, 36 "multiphase pipeline gathering well fluids from several ESP fitted oil wells of a distant oil field in Kuwait and processing it in a gathering center. Over a time frame of 3 to 4 years, the slug characteristics of this line showed substantial increase on account of gradual increase inflow, GOR and water cuts of the flowing well fluids. The higher liquid content slugs at the current production level began to give severe operational difficulties in the separators at the gathering center. These slugs further resulted into HSE related issues like severe pipeline vibrations, weakening of pipe supports, corrosion and excessive smoke flaring. The paper will discuss some of the quick fix actions taken to eliminate the above mentioned slugging problems and bring back the operations to normal. Such quick fix actions were taken without shutting down the facility and without any major modifications. As is cometimes the case, operational compulsions demand the ability to utilize what is available to ensure that production losses are minimized. The paper also provides the back-up calculations to show how the flow regime changed to undesired condition over a period and how the same was favorably changed to a more manageable flow regime. Based on the lessons learnt from the above-mentioned case, the paper identifies and recommends variety of techniques to enable operations to maximize efficiency of their multiphase flowlines.
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