Considerations in Gas Pipeline Commissioning to Prevent Hydrate Formation

Formation of gas hydrates in gas production pipelines is one of the major problems in deepwater development. Most of the research work has focused on the problem during normal operation conditions. However, this problem can arise during pipeline commissioning and get worse after commissioning, even though export gas is dry enough to be considered as a hydrate-free fluid under normal operation conditions. This is because the water content that was left in the pipeline during commissioning can initiate formation of gas hydrates when export gas is introduced into the pipeline. The water content depends on the commissioning procedure and fluids used during the commissioning. This paper presents a systematic method to optimize the commissioning procedure. An application example is also presented.