Grant: Engage Grants Program

Canadian offshore oil and gas reserves are of critical, economic and strategic importance to Canada's future. Offshore oil and gas reserves are abundant in Canada. From a strategic standpoint, it is important that Canada should be capable of efficient transportation and use of this resource. Current multiphase pipeline designs are limited in their ability to meet the targeted transport demand for future supplies due to flow assurance challenges in offshore conditions. The proposed collaborative effort will serve as a valuable tool in the development of future generation pipeline transport processes. The objective of this project is to develop a better understanding of the mechanics of multiphase flow hydrate and slugging phenomena in offshore pipelines through detailed experimental investigations and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations. This simulation capability will be integrated with GRi simulations' field development software. This will create an innovative tool that allows the offshore oil and gas industry to achieve greater efficiency and safety in subsea design. Numerical simulations will be validated with experimental findings at Memorial's multiphase flow loop. Improving the efficiency of the multiphase pipeline transport process will reduce the impact of flow assurance problems in subsea oil and gas production and processing facilities. The knowledge base developed in this project will be significant in making improvements to oil and gas transport and it will also be of value to a wide range of other applications.