A Cost Reduction Methodology for Offshore Projects

摘要

Current oil prices have made the offshore exploration of oil reserves a major challenge for oil companies. Standardization and extensive use of chattered units has allowed Petrobras to effectively promote competitiveness, cost reduction and reduced schedules in its projects. As a step forward in its pursue for cost reduction Petrobras has recently looked into Integrated Field Development. This article presents a low cost methodology for the design of production systems. Experience shows that integration among reservoir, flow assurance, subsea, well design and topsides teams is crucial for achieving a successful project. Besides being pursued for a long time, this integration has only been partially achieved in the industry and cost reduction opportunities have been lost. This article shows a cost driven methodology that can be used for guidance in the generation and screening of FEL1 alternatives. Metrics for the various parts of the system have been created and integrated in a simulation environment that allows economic analysis of different sorts. In FEL2 the methodology allows, for example, the evaluation of the number and capacity of platforms, the optimal schedule of well construction, the use of flexible or rigid risers, the diameter of production lines and the choice of technologies for handling streams w ith high C02 concentration in an integrated way. A simulation of an oil field shows effective results. In this new methodology a representation of each discipline is developed to allow their integration with the objective of making comparative economic analysis of alternatives.