Offshore staff
PERTH, Australia – Wood has signed an exclusive agreement with Shell Catalysts & Technologies concerning the latter’s Smart Choke technology.
This is said to be a low-cost, active slug suppression device for pipeline-riser systems.
Wood will implement Shell’s technology for oil and gas operators globally to help optimize their upstream operations, extend the lives of their facilities and reduce production downtime.
The agreement was announced at the Australasian Oil & Gas Subsea conference in Perth.
Over time with offshore production assets, the accumulation and slugging of liquid can lead to integrity and operational issues.
According to Wood, the potential repercussions are environmental impact issues, high replacement costs, significant downtime, and potentially higher abandonment costs for facilities nearing the end of their operating lifespan.
Shell’s central upstream engineering manager Loek Vreenegoor said: “Shell and Wood are applying specialized control algorithms that enable a Smart Choke to minimize issues and impacts associated with liquid management.
“It is one of very few systems that is field-proven by successful deployment on several Shell assets worldwide – notably extending the production lifetime of Shell fields.
“In just one example, we had a field shut-in and off the books due to slugging, brought back to life through Smart Choke technology, and then produced for several more years – an investment earned back within a day.”
The agreement with Wood should lead to wider implementation of the system in suppressing riser-induced slugging and the provision of real-time monitoring solutions.
03/11/2020
