A mathematical model for subsea wells partition in the layout of cluster manifolds

The layout of cluster manifolds in the subsea production system mainly affects the efficiency, safety and cost of deepwater oil and gas fields. For constructing an optimal layout of cluster manifolds, subsea wells shall be first allocated to different well sets, and then, for each well set, a cluster manifold is mounted at a suitable location and connected with all subsea wells in the same well set. The subsea wells partition is a fundamental work for constructing an optimal layout of cluster manifolds. In this paper, a mathematical model of partition of subsea wells is developed, and its algorithm is also correspondingly proposed and programmed by MATLAB. Numerical analysis is performed and discussed for a specific case of subsea wells partition to verify the model's accuracy and the algorithm's feasibility. The results show that the mathematical model is appropriate for describing the partition problem, and the algorithm is efficient for the mathematical model. The connection cost between subsea wells and cluster manifolds can be thus decreased as greatly as possible. Compared with the traditional experience, it avoids the negative effects of human factors, and provides a more scientific and quantitative means for the layout of subsea production system.

► A mathematical model for the optimal partition of cluster manifolds is developed.
► An efficient algorithm programmed by Matlab for this model is put forward.
► An approximation to the optimal partition can be obtained for any given well sets m.
► The model can also be extended to solve the other subsea cluster partition problem.