Abstract
The oilfield is unable to carry out normal temperature gathering and transportation (NTGT) process, since the feasibility has not been verified and the minimum flowable temperature (MFT) calculations have not been proposed. In this paper, the simulation of parameters such as temperature and pressure of the pipeline network are performed based on the production data of the oilfield during the period of unheated gathering. It is verified that the temperature and pressure errors of the simulation results are less than 0.79 °C and 0.1 MPa, respectively. It is found that the gathering network of this oilfield can operate normally in winter, which proves the feasibility of NTGT theoretically. Through calculating the flow parameters of the gathering network under extreme cold conditions in winter, a novel formula for calculating the MFT of oil-gas-water three-phase mixed transmission process is proposed, where the shearing effect of gas on fluid has been extra considered. The fitting effect of MFT formula on a single well is better than that on multiple wells. The application of the fitted MFT formula in situ as well as the corresponding preliminary oilfield tests has proved the feasibility of the NTGT process. Thus, the oilfield gathering network is successfully guided to change from a heated gathering process to a NTGT process.
