Developing a Comprehensive Understanding and Model of Hydrate in Multiphase Flow: From Laboratory Measurements to Field Applications

Gas hydrates pose a major flow assurance problem in the production and transportation of oil and gas. Managing the formation of gas hydrates is central for safe and continuous operation. In this paper, we will provide an overview of the Center for Hydrate Research and its efforts toward a better understanding of the formation, agglomeration, and accumulation of hydrates in multiphase flow. This paper will discuss the projects in the Center for Hydrate Research aimed at quantifying how hydrates can be managed by first understanding the fundamental processes for nucleation, growth, agglomeration, deposition, and plugging, knowledge in these areas that has been accumulated over decades of research. While still a work in progress, significant advances have been made in describing the hydrate formation in oil-dominated, water-dominated, and gas-dominated systems. One of the end goals of our effort is to develop the knowledge and tools to manage hydrates, as opposed to avoidance, in the production and transportation of oil and gas. It is recognized that the ideas and concepts introduced here are solely based on the efforts at the Center for Hydrate Research with direct input from industry leaders in the field over decades; as such, there may be alternative views on the problem, but these are not considered here. However, the authors do not know of any published models that provide transient, multiphase prediction of hydrates in a flowline.