DEEPWATER EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION

Subsea Gas Lift in Deepwater Applications

Riser-base gas lift is used in subsea

developments for production enhancement. It is an effective method to suppress severe slugging that occurs in
flowlines with downhill inclination. In
some cases, gas lift can aid blowdown for hydrate prevention. Gas
lift is not always needed because
its effectiveness depends on reservoir
performance, fluid properties, seabed terrain, subsea architecture, and
flowline and riser specifications. The
need for gas lift, optimal operability,
and system design should be assessed
from various aspects, including flow
assurance. A generic set of guidelines
was developed on the basis of past
experience with riser gas lift applications for different deepwater subsea
projects and associated multiphaseflow phenomena.

Introduction
This paper discusses riser-base gas lift
for deepwater subsea oil-production
systems. The focus is how flow-assurance concerns affect various engineering decisions in designing a gas lift
system. Riser-base gas lift is injection
of a predetermined rate of gas from the
host facility into the production flowline (riser) at the seafloor. The reasons
for gas lifting can vary, but the most
important pertain to flow assurance,
This article, written by Technology Editor
Dennis Denney, contains highlights of
paper OTC 18820, The Use of Subsea
Gas Lift in Deepwater Applications, by
Subash S. Jayawardena, George J.
Zabaras, SPE, and Leonid A. Dykhno,
Shell Global Solutions, prepared for the
2007 Offshore Technology Conference,
Houston, 30 April3 May. The paper has
not been peer reviewed.
Copyright 2007 Offshore Technology
Conference. Reproduced by permission.

production enhancement, flow stabilization, and flowline depressurization.

Why Gas Lift Is Needed
The stages of a fields life should be
studied to determine when to install
and operate the gas lift system. Gas
lift is not always beneficial; in some
cases, increasing the gas rate may be
detrimental to the performance of the
subsea system.
Production Enhancement. Gas lift
for production enhancement lowers
the flowline pressure. Typically, gas
lift is needed with high water cuts
in the flowlines, low-GOR fluids, and
low-to-moderate production rates. The
effectiveness is higher in systems with
low production-system-inlet pressures.
One major advantage of gas lift for
production enhancement is that there
are no moving parts in the subsea
system, apart from valves and chokes.
Compression for gas export is almost
inevitable in any subsea development;
therefore, the supply of lift gas during
production is not a major issue.
When to use gas lift for production
enhancement should be determined
by use of integrated (reservoir/wells/
flowline) production modeling. The
study also should include the water/gas
injection to the reservoirs. Accuracy of
flowline/riser pressure-drop and liquidholdup calculations in multiphase-flow
models and the accuracy of pressure/
volume/temperature predictions are
crucial. This accuracy becomes more
important in larger-diameter flowlines
with deepwater risers in which the
multiphase behavior is different from
that in smaller-diameter systems.
Severe-Slug Suppression. The tendency of subsea flowlines to exhibit
severe slugging at reduced-rate operations should be evaluated over the

fields life to identify when gas lift is

needed. Reduced-rate operation of the
flowline during startup period and
during well tests should be considered.
In many situations, gas lift may be
needed from first production to suppress severe slugging in such reducedrate situations.
Blowdown. Blowdown of large-diameter risers with gas lift assist is field
proven, especially for low-watercut systems. Gas lift can complete the blowdown in cases for which the flowline
size and fluid properties do not provide
a successful blowdown without gas lift
assist. Gas lift assist can lower flowline
pressures below target values.
Systems Suitable for Gas lift
High Water Cut. Depending on reservoir type and reservoir-management
strategy, large amounts of water can be
produced, especially in late stages of
production life. This is especially the
case if reservoir-pressure maintenance
requires water injection. Water cut in
such systems increases quickly, causing the flowline pressure to increase
because of the higher density of water
and reduced gas production. Without
artificial lift, such as gas lift, the wells
may not be able to produce against the
flowline pressures.
Injecting gas lowers the mixture
density in the riser and, hence, the
hydrostatic head, which is predominant at lower production rates, when
liquid holdup in the riser is greater. In
contrast, especially at high production
rates, increased gas flow in the riser and
the flowline downstream of injection
will increase the flowline pressure. If
the net result of these two competing
mechanisms is a reduction in flowline pressure, then gas lift is beneficial
to production enhancement. Results
from steady-state modeling, such as

The full-length paper is available for purchase at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

64

JPT JUNE 2008

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Fig. 1Flowline inlet pressure at different production rates and water cuts;
no gas lift.

Figs. 1 and 2, can be used to identify

production benefits from gas lift.
Low GOR. Low-GOR reservoir fluids
often require artificial lift. The mixture density in the riser is high, resulting in a higher flowline pressure.
The mechanism by which flowline
pressure is reduced is similar to that

for higher water cut. With increasing GOR, gas lift becomes less effective, and finally becomes detrimental.
Therefore, accurate prediction of the
GOR behavior over the life of the
field may become very important to
identify the need for gas lift, especially
in reservoirs for which management
includes gas injection.

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Fig. 2Flowline inlet pressure at different production rates and water

cuts for the same flowline; 15-MMscf/D gas lift.

hexion.com/oilfield
2008 Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Inc. All rights reserved.

JPT JUNE 2008

65

flowloop situations, riser-base gas lift

may not be the best option to reduce
the flowline pressure.
Reservoir-management concerns
also may dictate the need for gas
lift and when to use it. This is especially true if produced-gas reinjection
is a part of the field-development
strategy. In such cases, the expected
produced-fluid GOR may vary such
that gas lift may not be needed. The
full-length paper provides detail on
gas lift injection location and design considerations.

Fig. 3Initiation of severe slugging in a flowline with a downhill section

near the riser base when gas lift was stopped.

Deep Water. Because production

enhancement is related to reducing
the density of the riser fluid with gas,
it might be expected that the effectiveness of gas lifting increases with water
depth. However, other limitations
associated with gas lift may become
important and limit the applicability
of gas lift in ultradeep water. In particular, thermal limitation will appear
because the increased water depth will
increase the Joule-Thomson cooling
effect associated with depressurization
of additional gas, significantly cooling
the produced fluid and causing other
flow-assurance problems (e.g., faster
cooldown of the riser).
Long-Offset Flowlines. Unlike shortoffset flowlines in which downhole
gas lift might be reasonable, long-offset-flowline riser-base gas lift would
have fewer difficulties with delivery
of the gas from the host to the injection location. However, very-long-offset systems may be affected adversely
(thermally) by additional cooling from
gas expansion.
Downhill Flowlines. Downhill flowlines are susceptible to severe slugging. Often, gas lift is considered for a
flowline system with downhill-sloped
flowlines, even if gas lift is not required

66

for production enhancement. Because

severe slugging usually occurs at relatively low rates (e.g., early and late
life, well tests, commissioning, and
startup), gas lift may become necessary early.
Unlike uphill flowlines, blowdown
of downhill flowlines is feasible under
a limited set of circumstances. Gas lift
during blowdown may remove an additional amount liquid from the riser,
assisting complete blowdown in such
flowlines. In such cases, need to blowdown downhill flowlines may become
a primary factor for choosing the gas
lift option.
Uphill Flowlines. In most cases, severe
slugging is not an issue for flowlines
with uphill topography, even at high
water cuts. Blowdown feasibility often
depends on details of uphill-flowline
topography and depends strongly on
water production. Gas lift for blowdown assist may become necessary
only at medium-to-high water cuts.
In such cases, it may be acceptable to
defer the installation of gas lift until it
becomes necessary.
Other Factors. Weak-well startup may
require gas lift. The flowline pressure
can be reduced by gas lift, enabling
the flow of weak wells. However, in

Case Studies
Case 1. This floating-production-system-based deepwater-subsea development is at a water depth of approximately 6,000 ft. Subsea layout has both
uphill and downhill flowlines, with
two oil flowloops. Water or gas injection for reservoir support is not used in
this development.
Downhill flowlines were expected
to incur severe slugging, even at a
flow rate of 20,000 BFPD, and gas
lift was selected for these flowlines to
prevent severe slugging. Blowdown
assisted by gas lift was not considered
because of water-depth issues. Also,
the available gas lift injection tie-in
location did not favor the use of gas lift
during blowdown.
The closest gas lift tie-in for these
flowlines was near enough to the closest well for one flowline, but not for the
other. Thus, one flowline was equipped
with a dedicated gas lift injection point,
while the gas lift injection to the other
flowline was performed at that closestwell location. This decision eliminated
some subsea hardware but increased
one gas lift riser length by more than
5,000 ft.
Thermal considerations (cooldown
times of the subsea system, which
depend on arrival temperature while
gas lift is used) led to the decision
to insulate the shorter gas lift riser.
Analysis showed no need for insulating the longer gas lift riser. Also, the
cooldown times with cold gas injected
through the uninsulated gas lift riser
were acceptable in that flowline.
With 6,000-ft water depth, additional pressure boosting was required
for lift gas in some conditions. The
gas-export-flowline operating pressure is not adequate for all situations that need gas lift. However,
normal gas lift operations can be con-

JPT JUNE 2008

ducted with the export gas, with no

extra compression.
Gas lift for severe-slug suppression
in this case performed as expected.
However, the production rates required
to operate without severe slugging
when no gas lift was used were higher
than initially expected.
Case 2. This deepwater subsea development that used a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel
is at a water depth of approximately
3,000 ft. Subsea layout consists mostly
of uphill flowlines, with a significant
downward dip close to the riser base
for some flowlines. Water injection for
reservoir-pressure maintenance is used,
while gas reinjection is not used.
Reservoir pressures are not expected
to drop below bubblepoint. Water cut
increased significantly over the fields
life, resulting in a gradual decrease in
gas/liquid ratio. Integrated production
modeling predicted the need for gas
lift in middle and late field life associated with the increasing water cut in
the flowlines.
Also, severe-slug suppression
required the use of gas lift at low
production rates for flowlines with
a local downward dip. Gas lift is
needed at production rates less than
20,000 BLPD for smaller-diameter
flowlines in the area of downward dip
to prevent severe slugging. For the
larger-diameter flowline with downward dip, gas lift is needed to suppress
severe slugging at production rates
less than approximately 35,000 BLPD.
These rates depend strongly on the
GOR and water cut.
Flowline geometry and the expected
fluid composition in the flowlines at
different stages of field life required the
use of gas lift assist during blowdown
for some situations. The larger flowline size required gas lift for all fluid
compositions. Blowdown of smallersized flowlines needed gas lift when the
water cut increased above 50%.
Heated lift gas is provided by use of
dedicated gas lift risers to the base of
each production riser, with lift-gas-flow
rate controlled at the host. The insulated gas lift risers are designed to ensure a
minimum lift-gas injection temperature
under normal operating conditions so
that produced fluids will not be cooled
to an unacceptable temperature. This
method ensured maintaining adequate
cooldown times.

JPT JUNE 2008

The design included an integrated

electrohydraulic umbilical supplying
lift gas, chemicals, hydraulics, and
electrical power to the gas lift tie-in
points. This design provided a cost
saving, but it added operational and
installation complications.
Gas lift for severe-slug suppression
performed as expected in this case.
However, gas lift did not smooth the
flow. It removed the wide swings in
flowline pressure associated with severe
slugging and prevented the very large
(riser-volume size) liquid slugs from
being produced to the host. For example, severe slugging was suppressed with
20-MMscf/D gas lift in one of the larger
flowlines at 21,000 BLPD. Fig. 3 shows
the flowline-pressure fluctuations that
indicate the initiation of severe slugging
after gas lift was stopped.
Blowdown of a large-diameter flowline with a downward dip did not
reduce the flowline pressure below the
target. However, use of gas lift made
the flowline pressure drop below the
target pressure, making it a success.
Four additional developing cases are
detailed in the full-length paper.
Conclusions
Integrated production modeling (reservoir and subsea-gathering system) is
necessary to determine the need for gas
lift for production enhancement. Gas lift
requirements for severe-slug suppression and gas lift assisted blowdown can
be evaluated by analyzing the subsea
system alone.
Design of the subsea gas lift systems
should consider all credible operating
scenarios to ensure that the selected
system can deliver the lift gas as needed. Proposed uses of gas lift, anticipated
production forecasts, and any future
expansion plans determine when the
gas lift system should be ready for a
given development. Planning for liftgas supply during normal production
as well as under shut in conditions
must be planned in advance.
Whether to use subsea gas splitting
with a common gas lift delivery system
or to have dedicated gas lift delivery
systems for multiple flowlines/risers
depends on cost, external constraints,
proposed used of lift gas as well as
potential for severe slugging. There is
no one size fits all design approach
for the riser-base gas lift systems. Each
system must be designed with a holisJPT
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For more information, visit

hexion.com/oilfield/results

Hexion
Oilfield Technology Group
Houston, TX USA
+1 281 646 2800

hexion.com/oilfield
2008 Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Inc. All rights reserved.

67