In deeper waters, well fluids must travel longer distances (both horizontally and vertically), to reach offshore treatment facilities. The ability to boost (or pump) these untreated fluids has the potential to increase ultimate recovery and accelerate production. Multiphase pumps have become a mature technology onshore, but there is still little experience with their use offshore. This JIP was aimed at developing a tool to support the selection of cost-optimum solutions and maintenance strategies for subsea multiphase boosting in deepwater. This tool was a probabilistic model for assessing the reliability-based lifecycle cost for subsea multiphase boosting in deepwater. The model can be applied to evaluate the cost/benefit of different systems and maintenance strategies to find the most optimum solution.
The project was completed in August 2001.