The answer is clear, offshore producers want to guard against risky chemical under-injection and they lack confidence in the reliability of traditional chemical injection systems. Over the past few years, the oil & gas industry has experienced a major shift from a relativity high cost operating environment to the current low-cost environment where profitability has reduced, and rendered some traditional practices as no longer sustainable. In an effort to remain profitable in today’s markets, many companies have reacted by looking more closely at their installations for opportunities to both improve efficiency and reduce operating costs.
In last week’s blog post titled Offshore Overdose: How Chemical Injection Systems Can Affect your Bottom Line, we shared some of the challenges that are being faced with traditional chemical injection systems, and the need to find a solution which can better fit with the current environment. We explained how Emerson offers an integrated solution for chemical injection which can be used to improve your operational efficiency, and positively impact your profitability. In this week’s post, we will explore further the topic of system reliability.
When Estimating Goes Wrong
Offshore wells and surface facilities are vulnerable to a variety of threats such as hydrates, scales, waxes, asphaltenes, emulsions, and even bacteria. If these are allowed to build up, they can cause a plug in your well or pipeline which can easily cost tens of thousands per day and per well during repairs.
These threats can be kept under control by using specific amounts of certain hazardous chemicals and compounds. Unfortunately, the controls and monitoring devices which are utilized by traditional chemical injection systems have high maintenance requirements. This makes them more susceptible to mechanical failure, and risks dangerous exposures to your maintenance personnel and the surrounding environment. While the mechanical repairs typically require less time and money to remedy than the plug removals, both are examples of lost production time and increased expenditure.
So, how do we achieve the goal of flow assurance, that is, ensuring the reliable flow of natural resources through your production facility and out to the sale point, without disruption? You know the consequences of under-injection will impair production, but you aren’t able to accurately measure your chemical doses with traditional technologies.
In order to cover meter accuracy errors of up to 5%, many have adopted the standard precaution of opting to over-inject chemicals up to 20% above the recommended dose. This approach has also been used to cover delays in operator monitoring and the manual adjustment of injection system controls. Our assessment of this practice has revealed potentially millions in lost profits across the industry.
The Reliable Alternative
Can your chemical injection system respond to changing pressures automatically and without operator interference? Can you reliably and accurately measure how much chemical your system is sending downhole? What if I told you that you can save millions in operating expenses by optimizing the efficiency of your chemical injection systems, and that the return on investment will easily pay for the initial capital outlay many times over?
The complete chemical injection package relies on the highly accurate Micro Motion Coriolis meters, combined with the Tescom 56 series regulator and enhanced with the Tescom ER5000 electronic controller. This configuration provides a reliable, closed-control loop, with an immediate response to changing pressure conditions, and a precise measurement of the flow of chemicals.
The Micro Motion Coriolis meters include advanced diagnostic functions and no moving mechanical parts, which helps you reduce downtime when compared to the routine maintenance and failures of traditional technologies in this application. Smart Meter Verification offers a unique, schedulable, self-checking capability which can verify that the meter is still operating at its peak factory condition without disrupting flow.
Contact Emerson
Emerson continues to set high standards with problem-solving solutions, helping you deliver Top Quartile performance within your industry. Interested in getting started? Let us know in the comments section or visit us here to talk with us about how an integrated chemical injection solution can help you optimize the reliability and efficiency of your installation.
Be sure to stay tuned for more chemical injection perspectives in the upcoming weeks to learn more about Emerson’s integrated injection solutions for your challenges.
From Jim: You can also connect with corrosion control experts in the Flow, Valves, and Regulators groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
