The exploration and production of oil and gas reservoirs in a variety of water depth has become a challenge to the offshore industry.
Since these subsea developments are moving further offshore and into deeper waters, the technical challenges of such projects are continuously increasing.
For deep water developments a wide range of subsea layouts and production systems, greatly differing in complexity are utilized.
The latest subsea technologies have been proven and formed into an engineering system(the subsea production system) which is associated with the overall process and all the equipment involved in drilling, field development and field operation.
A subsea production system consists of a subsea completed well, subsea Christmas trees and wellhead systems, subsea tie-in to flow line system, jumpers, umbilical and riser system and subsea equipment to operate the well.
The single or clustered well can be connected through the flow line to a fixed platform, FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) or onshore facilities.
Alternatively, an existing subsea production system can be connected to a newly operated production well by means of a subsea tie-back (popular in the development of new oil and gas reserves).
Due to the high pressures, potentially large temperature gradients and the harsh environment in deep-water, the subsea systems and equipment are subjected to complex and critical load cases.
Therefore in all offshore pipeline systems the transportation of fluids including the flow of oil, gas, water and mixtures should be analyzed to optimize performance and minimize the operational risks.