Development and application of test apparatus with cyclic water-mixing gathering process simulation

The oil & gas gathering and transportation system is a great energy consumer in the oilfield. The energy consumption includes oil-gathering, dehydration, stability treatment, storage and transportation, and oil-gathering part accounts for 60%-80%. Therefore, to face the strategic targets and requirements raised in many countries that unit GDP energy consumption should be reduced effectively in the new situation, the energy-saving task is very severe in the oilfield. Especially, reducing the oil-gathering energy consumption is becoming the key problem. But in the current crude oil gathering and transportation process, the operating parameters are designed and optimized based on the situation that oil arrival temperature is near the freezing point, which restrict the further exploration and potentiality of lowering the temperature. In this paper, the limitations of commonly research methods are focused and the operating conditions, such as the working fluid, soil temperature, the pipeline specifications and flow velocity are considered respectively. We have developed a set of cyclic water-mixing gathering process simulation test apparatus with strong applicability and operability. The design of apparatus provides the new technology and the reliable method for improving energy efficiency, it is significant for improving the oilfield surface engineering test equipment and achieving the energy-saving targets. ©2010 IEEE.