The first subsea multiphase boosting system was installed in 1994.Since then, it has grown into a technology with a global track record.This paper is aimed at identifying potentially significant hidden value of the technology, or aspects thereof that have not received adequate attention during the field-development decision-making process.The authors demonstrate that a more-complete and-integrated assessment approach can reveal this additional value.The effect of boosting on increased recovery is realized through lowering of the wellhead, bottomhole, or reservoir pressure at which hydrocarbons can be produced economically.This translates into a higher degree of reservoir depletion;more-efficient drainage;and, to a certain extent, greater volumes produced.Increased oil recovery(IOR)has been the primary driver for adding artificial lift to subsea production systems, and also for subsea multiphase boosting.In projects in which subsea multiphase boosting was selected, IOR was the main driver for more than 90% of the assets.A review of field-development projects over the past 30 years for cases in which boosting was evaluated but not chosen revealed that many had used fixed production profiles or decline curves that were developed originally for either natural flow or gas-lifted flow(i.e., with a fixed total producible volume).These approaches do not permit quantification of improved recovery.Another observation is that these shortcuts to artificial-lift evaluation in the early project development phase tend to be carried through the subsequent decision gates of a project without being challenged.
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