Offshore gas production typically involves the simultaneous flow of oil and/or condensate. The oil may he entrained in the gas rising in the vertical well from the sea-bed or may flow under its own pressure gradient; condensate may result from the reduction of pressure from well conditions to pipeline transport pressure and from cooling sea temperatures. It would be unduly expensive to build a gas-liquid separation facility on a production platform, followed by two separate pipeline transport systems for the two phases. It is therefore desirable to examine pipeline systems that carry hydrocarbon...
Offshore gas production typically involves the simultaneous flow of oil and/or condensate. The oil may he entrained in the gas rising in the vertical well from the sea-bed or may flow under its own pressure gradient; condensate may result from the reduction of pressure from well conditions to pipeline transport pressure and from cooling sea temperatures. It would be unduly expensive to build a gas-liquid separation facility on a production platform, followed by two separate pipeline transport systems for the two phases. It is therefore desirable to examine pipeline systems that carry hydrocarbon liquid and gas together. Two-phase flow of oil and gas under steady-state operation of the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System was observed by nuclear densitometry at two onshore sites. Oil flowed into the pipeline system at an average rate of 1.6 Bbl/ MMSCF over the two-month data acquisition period; gas flow was constant at about 200 MMSCF per day.