The term “Flow Assurance” is thought to have been coined by Petrobras in the early 1990s as 'Garantia de Fluxo' which literally translates as 'Guarantee the Flow', or Flow Assurance.

The term originally covered the thermal hydraulic and production chemistry technical issues, faced when exploiting deepwater oil reserves.  Now, it is generally understood under a much broader definition:

"Flow Assurance includes all issues important to maintaining the flow of oil & gas from reservoir to reception facilities"

Flow Assurance is a multi-discipline activity, requiring engineers with detailed technical backgrounds to "follow the flow" from reservoir through to reception. Communication between disciplines is essential for Flow Assurance.

Flow Assurance includes the following:

Hydraulic Analysis

• Multiphase flow
• Pressure drop
• Deliverability - see Case Studies 2 & 3
  
  Thermal Behaviour
• Insulation
• Active heating requirements
  
  Operability Investigations
• System Warm Up
• System Cooldown - see Case Study 5
• Blowdown
• Slugging - see Case Studies 4 & 7
• Dead Oil Displacement
  
  Investigation of Potential Blockages
• Hydrates
• Wax
• Asphaltenes
• Scale
• Sand
  
  PVT & Rheology Investigation
• Phase behaviour & Characterisation
• Fluid physical properties - see Long Flowline Animation
• Non-Newtonian behaviour - see Case Study 8
• Emulsion characteristics
• Biodegradation
  
  Mechanical Integrity
• System damage (Corrosion/Erosion) - see Case Study 6
• Reliability & availability

See Case Studies showing how FEESA personnel have helped design teams address these problems or download our Flow Assurance Capability Statement (PDF, 213K)