Pipelines are no longer blocked, and energy flows smoothly

Industry:
Oil & Gas / Refining / Chemicals

Products:
Compact FieldPoint, Industrial I/O, LabVIEW, FieldPoint

Challenge:
Solve the slug problem that often occurs during long-distance pipeline transportation, thereby greatly improving pipeline transportation efficiency and reducing maintenance costs.

Solution:
Shell uses NI Compact FieldPoint to solve energy pipeline slug problem

Shell, a multinational company with a history of more than 100 years, is one of the world's leading providers of oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals. Using NI Compact FeildPoint and LabVIEW, Shell developed a slug flow suppression system called "S3", which effectively solves the slug flow phenomenon that often occurs during long-distance pipeline transportation, thereby greatly improving pipeline transportation efficiency and reducing maintenance costs.

As the "blood of industry", oil plays a vital role in economic development. Therefore, it is crucial to quickly and efficiently transport the extracted crude oil to the production platform through pipelines.

Pipeline slugs seriously affect energy delivery

For economic reasons, it is often necessary to use a single pipeline to transport liquid hydrocarbons, gas, and water from various satellite mines to a central production platform. However, in a single pipeline, isolated liquid and gas flows may cause liquid blockage because the actual velocity of the gas phase is faster than the actual velocity of the liquid phase. The liquid phase tends to accumulate in slopes and inclined pipe sections, causing irregular flow phenomena, which we call slugging. During operational changes, such as startup or production increase, large slugging liquid flows can be induced, which can lead to significant losses of oil and gas, and in more serious cases, may even affect facilities at both ends of the pipeline.

Compact FieldPoint platform ensures smooth flow of pipelines

In response to the slugging phenomenon in the transmission pipeline, Shell used the NI CompactFieldPoint platform and LabVIEW software to develop the slugging flow suppression and control system "S3". It consists of a micro-separation device located between the top of the riser and the common first-stage separation device. The micro-separation device contains two outlets, one for gas flow and one for liquid flow. The valve receives signals from the control system and controls the two outlet flows. The device uses the CompactFieldPoint I/O module to collect various pressure signals, and uses PID and other control algorithms in LabVIEW to control the system, thereby avoiding the occurrence of slugging. At the same time, NI CompactFieldPoint redundant backup is used in the system, with a reliability of up to 99.95%. "LabVIEW code can be downloaded directly to the Compact FieldPoint real-time controller, ensuring real-time and reliable operation. The control loop can be independent of the operating system on the PC, which further optimizes the control system." After the system was completed, Shell successfully evaluated the system under field conditions on the Shell UK E&P Gannet-Alpha platform (Middle North Sea).

LabVIEW makes system development fast and efficient

“Given the complexity of the control algorithm, it is not easy to implement such an application with existing PLC and DSC tools. Now we can quickly and easily test new ideas and analyze their feasibility through LabVIEW and the NI PAC platform. This process has significantly accelerated the development of S3.” Shell engineer Gert Haandrikman said: “In addition, we did not need to hire professionals. We successfully built the application in LabVIEW after only a few days of training.”