A changing hydrate paradigm - from apprehension to avoidance to risk management

Deepwater flow assurance is a major technical concern in the energy industry. Hydrates are the leading deepwater flow assurance problem, by an order of magnitude. Upon initial discovery of hydrate blockages in pipelines there was apprehension, based upon lack of knowledge. Over the last 70 years, development of phase equilibria has provided an acceptable hydrate avoidance ability. However, phase equilibria alone has some limitations. In a growing number of situations for preventing hydrate blockages, risk management is more economical than avoidance. In order to move from avoidance to risk management it is essential to quantify hydrate formation kinetics. That is, avoidance is enabled by thermodynamics, but risk management is enabled by kinetics. These transitions and the state-of-the-art in hydrate kinetics are presented, with challenges for the future. (c) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.