Predicting hydrate plug formation in oil-dominated flowlines

This work describes the development and application of a transient multiphase flow simulator which incorporates hydrate formation kinetics and thermodynamics to predict plugging in multiphase oil production lines. The model (CSMHyK v. 2.0) is shown to predict the formation of hydrate plugs in two industrial scale flowloops, by combining well known engineering correlations with state-of-the-art measurements. The experimental measurements described here allowed two fitted parameters to be eliminated. Applications of the model are demonstrated by forecasting hydrate formation rates in industrial flowlines. Further developments have allowed hydrate formation in systems with varying concentrations of salt or monoethylene glycol to be simulated by adjusting the hydrate equilibrium P–T curve as the concentration of inhibitor changes.