Subsea production systems and methods
AssigneeShell Oil Company
InventorGregory John Hatton
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Abstract
A subsea production system, comprising a plurality of wells located on a sea floor, the wells producing a fluid comprising hydrocarbons; a cold flow center on the sea floor, the cold flow center fluidly connected to the plurality of wells; and a production facility on land or on a floating structure, the production facility fluidly connected to the cold flow center; wherein the cold flow center lowers a temperature of the fluid and produces a slurry of the fluid and suspended solids for transportation to the production facility.
Claims19
A subsea production system, comprising:
- a plurality of wells located on a sea floor, the wells producing a fluid comprising hydrocarbons;
- a cold flow center on the sea floor, the cold flow center fluidly connected to the plurality of wells;
- and
- a production facility on land or on a floating structure, the production facility fluidly connected to the cold flow center;
- wherein the cold flow center lowers a temperature of the fluid and produces a slurry of the fluid and suspended solids for transportation to the production facility and wherein the cold flow center comprises a separator adapted to remove water and sand from the fluid before producing the transportable slurry.
A method of producing hydrocarbons from a subsea field, comprising:
- drilling a plurality of wells into the field on a seafloor;
- fluidly connecting the wells to a cold flow center;
- fluidly connecting the cold flow center to a production facility on land or on a floating offshore structure;
- producing a fluid comprising hydrocarbons from the wells to the cold flow center;
- separating water and sand from the fluid at the cold flow center;
- lowering a temperature of the fluid at the cold flow center to precipitate out one or more solids into the fluid;
- forming a slurry of the fluid and the solids;
- and
- transporting the slurry from the cold flow center to the production facility.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.