Fluids produced from hydrocarbon fields are composed of a mixture of oil,

gas and water, often with corrosive components, sometimes laden with solid

particles, and are a potential source of many flow instabilities. Frequently, they

are now directly exported long distances, in multiphase conditions, towards an

existing processing facility or a new processing centre created to serve simultaneously

several new fields. This production scheme, which is especially applied

offshore, in mature basins such as in the North Sea or in the Gulf of Mexico

where infrastructure exists over large areas, can also improve the economics

of small or deepwater fields.

This book presents the fundamentals of multiphase production with regard to

flow simulations in multiphase pipelines, multiphase pumping and multiphase

metering. It gives first a description of the multiphase flow patterns that may

appear in a pipe and explains how they are managed by the models. It also

offers a good introduction to modelling of hydrodynamic effects, thermodynamics

and thermal exchanges.

Multiphase pumps are now deployed in fields, whether onshore, offshore or

subsea, all over the world, where natural reservoir pressure is insufficient. The

book presents the various multiphase pump concepts and explains their operating

principles and how they can be introduced into a production system.

An adequate instrumentation system is needed to monitor and control the

performance of such systems and multiphase meters are increasingly used in

place of conventional test separators, both offshore and onshore. This book

provides the basic principles of multiphase metering, which relies on a combination

of elementary measurements, and particularly the means to meter the

oil, gas and produced water flowrates in multiphase conditions.

The successful application of long-distance multiphase transportation, multiphase

pumps and meters has paved the way for the development of subsea

processing, presented and discussed in the last chapter which deals with new

areas such as subsea separation, subsea gas compression, energy recovery

with a multiphase turbine, etc.

This book gives a large range of information on approaches and technologies

which can be used today. It is designed for engineers involved in field development,

but also for petroleum engineering students.