Subsea Economy Processing Segmentation

Subsea Economy¦ Technological segmentation

Challenges Meeting the industries demands efficiently

Decommissioning offshore platforms will remove valuable subsea tie-backs

Cross sector supply chain developments and Cost reduction

Adapting to emerging markets

Meeting Competitive pressures from overseas

Drawing down government funding

Myriad subsea topology

Background Subsea processing is an evolving modifications market and contains developments like

subsea compression, subsea separation and subsea boasting and pumping operations;

all of which are contributing to the increasing production and recoverability of the oil

and gas reserves. These technologies are improving the efficiencies of the industry

whilst also creating the potential to rebrand the offshore industry through the transi-

tioning process of submerging key pieces of technology, which will de-compact top-

side procedures.

The UK’s North Sea (NS) is a maturing region that provides a niche opportunity for the

emerging subsea technologies. This upstream technology offers significant cost advan-

tages after the initial capex, it will initially target the marginal and much smaller re-

serves, before its growth into what Aker Solutions have termed ’Subsea Factory’,

In Numbers Supplying the subsea emerging economy, in the East of England:

3rd

Largest investor global in subsea technology

177 Offshore gas platforms in the SNS

30% Britain's gas comes

through Bacton terminal

in Norfolk.

45% Of UK O&G production was accounted for by subsea wells.

(Source: (O&G UK)

Significant business opportunities in North Sea The East of England (EoE) has a significant amount of gas being processed through it with national distribution implications. However, the NS fields are maturing and need innovation; subsea tech-nology modifications our currently exploiting this gap in the UK market. However, there is no sig-nificant regional competency in subsea processing technologies in the EoE that offer this subsea processing economy. What subsea technologies can offer the NS:

Improved recoverability and production

Cost reductions after initial capital investment

Suitable for marginal and maturing fields

Uses existing infrastructure

Reduces topside density and complexity

Subsea skills will be in high demand in the coming decades

57% Of platforms in the SNS

are older than their de-

signed life.

Subsea Economy¦ Technological segmentation

Subsea Processing Technologies Case Studies

Contact: Thomas Burke— 1991tburke@gmail.com

Subsea boosting units pump hydrocarbons from the separator to the con-

necting infrastructure or shore. This uses the centrifugal pump concept to

increase the fuels pressure thus creating a pressure gradient for the fuel to be

transported down. This is useful for long tie-back distances or maturing

fields experiencing pressure declines.

Subsea processing templates are required to house each of the individual

technological components. They are also designed so that modules can be

operated by remote operated vehicles (ROVs) and replaced by an appropri-

ately sized vessel on an individual basis rather than removing the whole

template.

Processing units like the examples below target marginal and maturing

fields by improving a fields recoverability and productivity, which can also

prolong infrastructures and a fields life.

Subsea separator and re-injection uses topside proven technologies to

separate the extracted compound into its different components. This is done

through gravity separation, which, enables:

Re-injected to increase the reservoir pressure, whilst also disposing

of the produced water.

Segregating fluids directly improve the purity and energy efficiency

of the pumped fuel.

The Tordis field has predicted using this technology will increase recover-

ability factor from 49% to 55%, which will produce an extra 35 million

barrels of oil. This is achieved by removing water from the water substream

and re-injecting the water into a separate substream thereby reducing back-

pressure and allowing more hydrocarbons to be processed.

Subsea gas compression will significantly contribute to improvements in

productivity, recovery rates and therefore the lifetime of gas fields. This

technology is particularly useful for long tieback distances either to shore or

to the platform.

The first planned installation of this technology is in the Asgard field 2015

Norway. It is estimated that it will recover an additional 280 million barrels

of oil equivalents through maintaining the fields in-situ pressure.