KAZAKHSTAN UPSTREAM OIL AND GAS technology and R&d ...

3.1 Flow assurance and sand control
Challenge commentary
Kazakhstan’s upstream oil and gas industry
suffers from common flow assurance issues
such as hydrate formation, wax deposition and
sand production. Multiphase flow modelling
in both wells and pipelines is another
challenge in Kazakhstan: it is a complex
discipline and not well developed in country.
Problems have been reported with the
selection, deployment and monitoring of
flow assurance techniques in a number of
fields. Production allocation and pressure
monitoring are known to be difficult in the
Karachaganak, Kenkiyak, Kumkol South and
North Buzachi fields. Flowline metering and
monitoring is a challenge in extremely cold
weather. And the assessment of permeability
changes due to plugging and scaling
during production has caused difficulties in
the Tengiz, Kenkiyak, Kumkol South, North
Buzachi and Karazhanbas fields.
Sand management is a challenge in fields
like Karazhanbas, North Buzachi, Zhalgiztobe
and Kenkiyak. Operators appear to have
given up trying to control sand production,
simply dumping sand in special disposal
sites. Formation stabilisation to reduce sand
production and the processing of sand for
industrial applications are both key challenges.
Hydrate, asphaltene and wax deposition
and scaling are reported problems in
the Kashagan and North Buzachi fields.
Paraffin build-up is an issue in fields like
UzenMunayGas, Karamandybas and
Zhetbay. And scaling due to the reaction
between formation water and injected
seawater is a common challenge. Speciality
chemicals are available to tackle all of these
problems and also to help break emulsions
and improve oil rheology. But they are not
routinely used in Kazakhstan owing to the lack
of facilities to evaluate their performance and
tailor their properties to the local conditions,
and the absence of local manufacturing
facilities (which puts up their cost).
Finally, mercaptan removal is a specific
challenge for operators in Kazakhstan. Levels
are high, all the necessary technology has to
be imported and the process is prohibitively
expensive.
VALUE
VALUE
3.1.4
3.1.6
3.1.8
CHALLENGE (elements)
Flow assurance methods incl.
multiphase flow modelling
3.1.7
3.1.3
3.1.1
3.1.2
3.1.5
3.1.9
3.1.10
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
3.1.1 3D flow modeling (including multiphase flow)
3.1.2 Flow Assurance Modelling and Monitoring
3.1.3 Production surveillance and optimization
3.1.4 Multiphase flow meters (for extreme conditions,
self calibrating etc)
3.1.5 Heating for Flow Assurance
3.1.6 Well Stimulation (remote stimulation techniques)
3.1.8 Intelligent completions
3.1.7 Sand Control and Removal
3.1.9 Flow Assurance Chemicals
3.1.10 Mercaptan Removal
ATTRACTIVENESS
73
Sand removal and sand control
Chemicals inhibition
Mercaptan removal
Kazakhstan Upstream oil & gas technology and R&D roadmap