What's new in production

	Vol. 225 No. 4
ROBERT E. SNYDER, EXECUTIVE ENGINEERING EDITOR

Slimmed-down energy bill. Senator Pete Domenici, R-NM, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, recently unveiled a new energy proposal (S.2095), with a $14 billion price tag, a trimmer version of its $32 billion predecessor (H.R. 6). While driven to cut the bill's costs, the Senate's new version retains key provisions for the offshore industry, including revisions to the Coastal Zone Management Act's consistency provisions, deepwater royalty relief, deep gas royalty relief, delayed rental payments and amortization of geological/ geophysical costs.

The spending cuts were implemented across the broad spectrum of energy programs, limiting overall impact to the oil/gas industry. However, the Senate did elect to delay an additional layer of “ultra-deep” royalty relief for gas wells in shallow water until 2005. Also on the cost-cutting floor is a provision requiring direct spending of $1.5 billion for research on ultra-deepwater and unconventional gas wells, and another requiring direct spending of $1.1 billion to ameliorate the coastal impact of offshore oil/gas drilling.

Each of these provisions is now subject to future appropriations, lessening the bill's price tag by $2.6 billion. Additionally, a provision authorizing certain leaseholders in the Gulf of Mexico to withhold royalties to offset interest owed by the federal government has been delayed until fiscal year 2009.

Domenici's new energy bill is ready for consideration on the Senate floor, and timing for debate will be decided by that chamber's leaders. Reports indicate that S. 2095 could see floor debate shortly after the President's Day recess.

Positive LNG moves. ABS, Houston, is proceeding to class the first offshore LNG deepwater port buoy. It has contracted with Advanced Production and Loading AS of Norway (APL) to provide classification services for APL' patented Submerged Turret Loading (STL) system – a single-point mooring system (SPM), and an integral component of the industry's first offshore LNG terminal – destined for the Gulf of Mexico, some 116 miles offshore Louisiana. The project will create industry's first offshore LNG deepwater port terminal in the US, and will be the first of its kind in the world.

The Energy Bridge Deepwater Port terminal system is planned for installation on West Cameron Block 603 in 280-ft water – first cargo is scheduled for January 2005. The project provides an industry model for taking traditional, land-based LNG receiving terminals offshore. Offshore gas ports will avoid many challenges associated with building or expanding conventional terminals in environmentally sensitive or populated areas, while facilitating the delivery of re-gasified LNG directly into pipeline grids.

The terminal will consist of the STL system, with the top of the buoy submerged 90 ft, a new-build piled platform to support a gas-custody transfer metering station and associated pipelines connecting the STL system to two pipeline grids. The STL buoy is under construction with Junoverken AB at Uddevalla, Sweden, and will be transported to US waters this November. The 186-t unit will allow specially built LNG carriers fitted with onboard re-gasification equipment to transfer gas through the buoy, which is connected to a pipeline end manifold (PLEM) on the seafloor.

The new carriers, known as Energy Bridge re-gasification vessels, or EBRVs, are equipped with a small moonpool to accommodate the STL buoy connection, but retain the flexibility to trade as conventional LNG carriers. Two EBRVs are under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea. The Energy Bridge Deepwater Port project, with planned capacity to deliver base-load gas volumes in excess of 500 MMcfpd, is scheduled to complete in January 2005.

   And in Qatar, GE Energy has been awarded a $200 million contract by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil to supply three turbo compressor strings for main refrigerant duty in the Qatargas II LNG Expansion Project. This, the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, will also feature the world's largest trains for LNG production. Qatar Petroleum owns 70% of the project, ExxonMobil 30%.

GE Energy is supplying three MS9001E gas turbine-driven compression strings with low emissions capability. They will be manufactured at GE facilities in Belfort, France, and tested and packaged at GE's Massa, Italy, plant for shipment to the Ras Laffan site. The centrifugal compressors will be manufactured and assembled at GE's Florence and Massa workshops. Shipment of the units will begin in November 2005. The Qatargas II project, which also includes an offshore development, large capacity ships and a re-gasification terminal, will supply the UK market with LNG.

Slug suppression technology in the North Sea. Shell UK E&P (Shell Expro) says Shell Global Solutions' slug suppression technology played a major part in the success of its project to develop the Penguins field in the North Sea. The field started to produce oil in January 2003; it was discovered in 1974. However, it lay dormant for nearly 30 years because the available multiphase flow technology was unable to produce its distributed wells economically through a single tie-back to a remote production platform.

Local accumulations of liquid pockets – liquid slugs – can form in a multiphase flow pipeline at transient operating conditions (start-up, ramp up, pigging), or at turndown conditions. The type of accumulation depends on presence of low spots in the pipeline elevation profile. The slug suppression technology controls and mitigates the resultant large surges of liquid and gas at the outlet of the flowline-riser system. These surges can trigger high-level trips in separators and lead to unstable operation of topside facilities, causing oil and gas production losses. The technology was developed by Shell Global solutions and is marketed by Dril-Quip Inc. as the S3.

The S3 is a small separator positioned between the pipeline outlet and the bulk separator. The outlet's valves are regulated by the control system using signals calculated from locally measured parameters, including pressure and liquid level in the S3 vessel, and gas and liquid flowrates. The objective is to maintain constant total volumetric outflow. The system is designed to suppress severe slugging and decelerate transient slugs so that associated fluids can be produced at controlled rates.