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Venezuela Amuay Refinery Disaster -- On August 25, 2012 at 01:11, an explosion occurred at the Amuay refinery in the Paraguana Refinery Complex in Venezuela caused by the ignition of a gas cloud following a propane or butane leak. The blast killed at least 41 people, and injured >80 others. More than 200 homes were damaged by the shock wave. Puddles of petroleum mixed with water covered roads in the area. Residents reported there had been a strong smell of gas and a dense fog-like cloud days before the deadly explosion. (more...) |
Featured Article of the Month
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Flow assurance is becoming increasing important in the operability oil/gas production, especially in deepwater. This picture is a large gas hydrate plug formed in a Petrobras subsea hydrocarbon pipeline. Flow assurance is a relatively new term in oil and gas industry. The term was coined by Petrobras in the early 1990s in Portuguese as Garantia do Escoamento, meaning literally “Guarantee of Flow”, or Flow Assurance. The term originally covered the thermal hydraulic analysis and evaluation of potential production problems associated with solids formation, such as waxes, asphaltenes, hydrates and scale. Now, it has a much broader definition and includes all issues important to maintaining the flow of oil and gas from reservoir to reception facilities (onshore and offshore). The flow assurance paradigm currently is shifting from avoidance to risk management
In its virgin reservoir state, the hydrocarbon and formation water are in equilibrium with its environment for millions of years. During production, this equilibrium is abruptly disturbed as the hydrocarbon and water flow out of the reservoir into the production system. As the fluids try to reach new equilibrium with the changing environments, phase changes will likely occur, for example, gas breaking out from oil, liquid hydrocarbon condensing from gas, solids forming in the hydrocarbon or produced water phases, etc. These phenomena pose threat to smooth operation of the production facilities. Flow assurance is about understanding these threats and develop the appropriate engineering, design, and chemical methods to mitigate or remediate them. (more...)
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Featured Technology of the Month |
Halliburton's DeepReach™ Coiled Tubing Servic uses multiple outer diameter coiled tubing sections in a single string with larger OD sections near the top of the string and smaller OD sections near the bottom.With this arrangement, the tension along the string length is reduced while sufficient flow capacity is retained for performing well intervention operations.
Tapered OD Makes the Difference
The vertical depth capability of conventional coiled tubing is limited because as the length of the tubing string increases in the
well, the string’s total weight also increases; therefore, the capability of a conventional CT string to perform ultra-deep work
depends primarily on the string’s total hanging weight and the yield strength of the parent metal. If the hanging weight exceeds
the pipe’s yield strength, a string separation can occur. Since a tapered coiled tubing string is lighter in weight (compared
to a single string of the largest diameter) and its design provides greater strength at the upper end of string, operators can realize
up to a 30 percent increase in depth capability over conventional CT strings.
Key Enabling Technologies
Multiple technologies were developed to enable DeepReach coiled tubing to be used in deep well operations. These technologies
include 1) the CT transition joints, 2) Boots & Coots V-Block® gripper design, (more...) |
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