Hydrocarbon Management - Surface Processing Facilities in the Prudhoe Bay Field of Alaska

Facility debottlenecking and corrosion/erosion repairs are costly penalties being paid today for previous design decisions. These decisions were made without correctly anticipating long-term changes in the field production profile. This manuscript addresses specific problems at the F-Pad production facility, located in the western operating area of the Prudhoe Bay field on the north slope of Alaska. These problems resulted from a lack of long-term planning on prior well-pad-expansion projects. This manuscript addresses present problems and impacts, current fixes and lessons learned, proposed solutions and benefits, and forward-looking designs. A post-mortem of the completed debottlenecking Phase One project will be provided, including descriptions of the problem, solution, scope of work, expected cost and benefits, and measured benefits. The lessons learned will be presented in the form of the proposed debottlenecking Phase Two plans and the best design options for future new well expansion of well pads in the Prudhoe Bay field. Information provided in this manuscript can lead directly to better long-term planning for production-well-facility-expansion projects. Longer-term thinking can prevent building-in limitations that cannot handle changing production trends, that can reduce facility life because of corrosion/erosion conditions, and that may prevent value-added future expansion projects. There are 44 producing wells onmore » the pad and the total production rates of F-Pad today average 45,000 STB of oil, 35,000 STB of water, and 350 million scf of gas per day.« less