Introduction

In general the production installations at either onshore or offshore there is no difference. The only difference is, at onshore send oil/gas directly to the refinery or group gathering stations but incase of offshore the crude oil will process there itself and send to the shore by means of pipe lines or FPSOs vessels.

Oil and gas offshore installations are industrial towns at sea, carrying the personnel and equipment needed to access reservoirs thousands of feet below the seabed, and maintain continuous hydrocarbon production. The most important functions are drilling, preparing water or gas for injection into the reservoir, processing the oil and gas before sending it ashore, and cleaning the produced water for disposal into the sea.

Big fixed platforms may have all these functions in one location, but smaller platforms may be dedicated to just one function, such as drilling or gas compression. Some installations can be moved from one location to another, for example mobile drilling rigs and production Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO). These are installations on land and usually close to the sea, which receive oil and gas from offshore installations via pipeline (or in the case of oil sometimes by tanker). These installations prepare the liquid products for further refining - but they are not the refineries. They also take the natural gas and make it suitable for piping into the National Grid. At some installations gas liquids are processed. The popular image of offshore work often centres on a muddy drill floor, where wells are drilled to target the reservoirs of oil and gas below the surface - but this is only the beginning of the story. The top end of each production well sprouts a branching series of pipes, gauges and valves called the 'Christmas tree'. At this point, crude oil is a hot, frothy, corrosive, highpressure fluid containing gas, water and sand. After separation, the crude oil is metered and pumped into the pipeline, or stored until sent ashore by tanker. The gas separated from the oil may be used for fuel, or compressed and piped to shore or re-injected into the reservoir. Any gas that cannot be used is burnt in the platform's flare; very little gas is now flared. Processing systems for the gas fields of the southern North Sea are relatively simple. The gas liquids are removed and then the gas is compressed, cooled, dehydrated and metered before being piped to shore. All production and drilling systems have to be monitored constantly for leaks, since oil and gas are hazardous and extremely flammable. There is no mains electricity offshore! Power has to be generated on the installation to drive production and drilling equipment, and to support life. In other words, offshore installations are packed with complex equipment and systems that need to be operated and maintained safely by highly skilled people who understand the technology and the processes involved, and who can work together in integrated teams. Offshore installations vary in size, but a typical one house a core crew of 50-100 men and women, living quarters are compact but comfortable, and food is good and plentiful. Off-shift, a worker can choose to work out in the gym, watch a video, play snooker, read or learn to use a personal computer. Living with work colleagues, however, means that an offshore worker has to be able to cooperate in a group.

The Offshore Installation Manager or Onshore Plant Manager is in charge, making sure that all operations run smoothly and that safety standards are met. He co-ordinates the work of different disciplines such as drilling, production and maintenance. Offshore progress or problems are communicated 'to the beach'. Safety is always the principal concern in every aspect of the oil and gas industry's activities. Every installation has a Safety Case setting out how the risks will be managed. The industry is proud of its safety record over the last few years, and workers are encouraged to report any health, safety or environmental problems. Site Preparation Site preparation for an oil and gas well, in most instances, looks like any other construction site. OSHA uses Safety and Health Regulations for Construction [1926] to assess safety compliance during this phase of the development of a drilling site. Once the location for the site has been established, the area is prepared for drilling, with the following steps:

Site Preparation Conductor-rathole-mousehole Transporting Equipment Rigging Up Drilling Ahead Tripping out/In Casing Operations

Drilling Rig

Maintenance Activities Rig Floor Drilling Line Maintenance Wire Rope Maintenance Mud Circulating System Generator, Electric Motors and Electrical System Engines Derrick Equipment Maintenance Well Control Monitoring and Maintaining Mud System Installing BOP's, Accumulator, and Choke Manifold Testing BOP's, Accumulators, and Choke Manifold Maintaining Surface Control System

Plug and Abandon the Well

A well is abandoned when it reaches the end of its useful life or is a dry hole.

The casing and other equipment is removed and salvaged. Cement plugs are placed in the borehole to prevent migration of fluids between the different formations. The surface is reclaimed.

Fig. 1 & 2 onshore and offshore drilling rigs

Water and Gas injections

Water flooding, gas injection and water-alternating-gas injection (WAG) are wellestablished methods for improving oil recovery. In reservoirs that have been water flooded, it is still possible to recover a significant part of the remaining oil by injecting gas alternately with water. Gas can occupy part of the pore space that otherwise would be occupied by oil, thereby mobilising the remaining oil. Water, injected subsequently, will displace some of the remaining oil and gas, further reducing the residual oil saturation. Repetition of the WAG injection process can further improve the recovery of oil.

Oil platform

Fig.3 The Hibernia platform is the world's largest oil platform; Fig.4 Gulf offshore platform, detailed image An oil platform is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and then produce oil and natural gas in the ocean. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be attached to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or be floating. Generally, oil platforms are located on the continental shelf, though as technology improves, drilling and production in deeper waters becomes both feasible and profitable. A typical platform may have around thirty wellheads located on the platform and directional drilling allows reservoirs to be accessed at both different depths and at remote positions up to 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the platform. Many platforms also have remote wellheads attached by umbilical connections, these may be single wells or a manifold centre for multiple wells.

Platform types
Larger lake- and sea-based oil platforms and oil rigs are some of the largest moveable man-made structures in the world. There are several distinct types of platforms and rigs:.

Fixed Platforms, built on concrete and/or steel legs anchored directly onto the seabed, supporting a deck with space for drilling rigs, production facilities and crew quarters. Such platforms are, by virtue of their immobility, designed for very long term use (for instance the Hibernia platform). Various types of structure are used, steel jacket, concrete caisson, floating steel and even floating concrete. Steel jackets are vertical sections made of tubular steel members, and are usually piled into the seabed. Concrete caisson structures, pioneered by the Condeep concept, often have in-built oil storage in tanks below the sea surface and these tanks were often used as a flotation capability, allowing them to be built close to shore (Norwegian fjords and Scottish firths are popular because they are sheltered and deep enough) and then floated to their final position where they are sunk to the seabed. Fixed platforms are economically feasible for installation in water depths up to about 1,700 feet (520 m).

Fig.5 A Statfjord Gravity Base Structure under construction in Norway; Fig.6 A typical offshore Oil/Gas platform

Compliant Towers, consist of narrow, flexible towers and a piled foundation supporting a conventional deck for drilling and production operations. Compliant towers are designed to sustain significant lateral deflections and forces, and are typically used in water depths ranging from 1,500 and 3,000 feet (450 and 900 m). Semi-submersible Platforms having legs of sufficient buoyancy to cause the structure to float, but of weight sufficient to keep the structure upright. Semi-submersible rigs can be moved from place to place; and can be ballasted up or down by altering the amount of flooding in buoyancy tanks; they are generally anchored by cable anchors during drilling operations, though they can also be kept in place by the use of dynamic positioning. Semi-submersible can be used in depths from 600 to 6,000 feet (180 to 1,800 m). Jack-up Platforms, as the name suggests, are platforms that can be jacked up above the sea, by dint of legs than can be lowered like jacks. These platforms, used in relatively low depths, are designed to move from place to place, and then anchor themselves by deploying the jack-like legs. Drillships, a maritime vessel that has been fitted with drilling apparatus. It is most often used for exploratory drilling of new oil or gas wells in deep water but can also be used for scientific drilling. It is often built on a modified tanker hull and outfitted with a dynamic positioning system to maintain its position over the well. Floating production systems are large ships equipped with processing facilities and moored to a location for a long period. The main types of floating production systems are FPSO (floating production, storage, and offloading system), FSO (floating storage and offloading system), and FSU (floating storage unit). These ships do not actually drill for oil or gas.

Tension-leg Platforms, consist of floating rigs tethered to the seabed in a manner that eliminates most vertical movement of the structure. TLPS are used in water depths up to about 6,000 feet (2,000 m). The "conventional" TLP is a 4-column design which looks similar to a semisubmersible. Proprietary versions include the Seastar and MOSES mini TLPs; they are relatively low cost, used in water depths between 600 and 3,500 feet (200 and 1,100 m). Mini TLPs can also be used as utility, satellite or early production platforms for larger deepwater discoveries. Spar Platforms, moored to the seabed like the TLP, but whereas the TLP has vertical tension tethers the Spar has more conventional mooring lines. Spars have been designed in three configurations: the "conventional" one-piece cylindrical hull, the "truss spar" where the midsection is composed of truss elements connecting the upper buoyant hull (called a hard tank) with the bottom soft tank containing permanent ballast, and the "cell spar" which is built from multiple vertical cylinders. The Spar may be more economical to build for small and medium sized rigs than the TLP, and has more inherent stability than a TLP since it has a large counterweight at the bottom and does not depend on the mooring to hold it upright. It also has the ability, by use of chain-jacks attached to the mooring lines, to move horizontally over the oil field. The first Spar was Kerr-McGee's Neptune, which is a floating production facility anchored in 1,930 feet (588 m) in the Gulf of Mexico. Dominion Oil's Devil's Tower is located in 5,610 feet (1,710 m) of water, in the Gulf of Mexico, and is the world's deepest spar. The first (and only) cell spar is Kerr-McGee's Red Hawk.

Maintenance and supply

A typical oil production platform is self-sufficient in energy and water needs, housing electrical generation, water desalinators and all of the equipment necessary to process oil and gas such that it can be either delivered directly onshore by pipeline or to a Floating Storage Unit and/or tanker loading facility. Elements in the oil/gas production process include wellhead, production manifold, production separator, glycol process to dry gas, gas compressors, water injection pumps, oil/gas export metering and main oil line pumps. All production facilities are designed to have minimal environmental impact. Larger platforms are assisted by smaller ESVs (emergency support vessels) like the British Iolair that are summoned when something has gone wrong, e.g. when a search and rescue operation is required. During normal operations, PSVs (platform supply vessels) keep the platforms provisioned and supplied, and AHTS vessels can also supply them, as well as tow them to location and serve as standby rescue and firefighting vessels.

Risks
The nature of their operation extraction of volatile substances sometimes under extreme pressure in a hostile environment has risk and frequent accidents and tragedies occur. In July 1988, 167 people died when Occidental Petroleum's Alpha offshore production platform, on the Piper field in the North Sea, exploded after a gas leak. The accident greatly accelerated the practice of housing living accommodation on self-contained separate rigs, away from those used for extraction.

However, this was, in itself, a hazardous environment. In March 1980, the 'flotel' (floating hotel) platform Alexander Kielland capsized in a storm in the North Sea with the loss of 123 lives. Given the number of grievances and conspiracy theories that involve the oil business, and the importance of gas/oil platforms to the economy, they are in the United States seen as potential terrorist targets. Agencies and military units responsible for maritime counterterror in the US (Coast Guard, Navy SEALs, etc.) often train for platform raids.

Environmental effects
In British waters, the cost of removing all platform rig structures entirely was estimated in 1995 at 1.5 billion, and the cost of removing all structures including pipelines a so-called "clean sea" approach at 3 billion. Further effects are the leaching of heavy metals that accumulate in buoyancy tanks into water; and risks associated with their disposal. There has been concern expressed at the practice of partially demolishing offshore rigs to the point that ships can traverse across their site; there have been instances of fishery vessels snagging nets on the remaining structures. Proposals for the disposal at sea of the Brent Spar, a 137-metre (449 ft) tall storage buoy (another true function of that which is termed an oil rig), was for a time in 1996 an environmental cause clbre in the UK after Greenpeace occupied the floating structure. The event led to a reconsideration of disposal policy in the UK and Europe.

Large platforms
The Petronius Platform is an oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which stands 2,000 feet (610 metres) above the ocean floor. This structure is partially supported by buoyancy. Depending on the criteria it may be the world's tallest structure. The Hibernia platform is an oil and gas platform in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. The Gravity Based Structure (GBS), which sits on the ocean floor, is 111 metres high and has storage capacity for 1.3 million barrels of crude oil in its 85 metre high caisson (Dorel Iosif). The platform acts as a small concrete island with serrated outer edges designed to withstand the impact of an iceberg. The GBS contains production storage tanks and the remainder of the void space is filled with ballast with the entire structure weighing in at 1.2 million tons. The platform stands 224 metres high, which is half the height of New York's Empire State Building (449 metres) and 33 metres taller than the Calgary Tower (191 metres).

Manifolds and Types

Manifold is one which has several outlets with one inlet or several inlets with one outlet. They are termed with different names based place of utilization.

Choke manifold
1. Drilling

A set of high-pressure valves and associated piping that usually includes at least two adjustable chokes, arranged such that one adjustable choke may be isolated and taken out of service for repair and refurbishment while well flow is directed through the other one. 2. Well Completions A manifold assembly incorporating chokes, valves and pressure sensors used to provide control of flowback or treatment fluids.

Flow line manifold

1. Production Testing A pipe fitting with several lateral outlets for connecting flowlines from one or more wells. This connection directs flow to heater-treaters, separators or other devices.

Manifold
1. Well Completions An arrangement of piping or valves designed to control, distribute and often monitor fluid flow. Manifolds are often configured for specific functions, such as a choke manifold used in well-control operations and a squeeze manifold used in squeeze-cementing work. In each case, the functional requirements of the operation have been addressed in the configuration of the manifold and the degree of control and instrumentation required.

Pump manifold
1. Well Workover and Intervention The arrangement of lines and valves used to direct and control fluid on a pumping unit. The manifold on the pump suction is generally known as the inlet or low-pressure manifold. The corresponding manifold located on the pump discharge is commonly known as the high-pressure or discharge manifold. In most cases, reference to the pump manifold relates to the high-pressure manifold.

Squeeze manifold
1. Well Workover and Intervention A manifold connected within the surface treating lines that is configured to enable control and routing of fluids during a squeeze operation. Most squeeze manifolds have treating line connections with the tubing string, annulus, pit line and pump unit. Isolation valves enable the appropriate flow path to be selected, and pressure sensors included in tubing and annulus lines monitor the key treatment pressures. In some squeeze treatments, such as squeeze cementing, it may be desirable to reverse-circulate excess cement from the tubing string. The squeeze manifold enables a change in fluid routing to be quickly and easily achieved from one station.

Fig. 3 Slot Production Manifold Used for Gas/Oil Service; Fig. 4 Slot Production Manifold Used for Gas/Oil Service

Fig. 6 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas/Oil Service; Fig. 8 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas/Oil Service

Fig. 8 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas/Oil Service; Fig. 9 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas Lift

Fig. 10 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas/Oil Service; Fig. 12 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas/Oil Service

Fig. 12 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas/Oil Service; Fig. 4 Slot Production Manifold Used For Gas/Oil Service

Floating Production Storage and Offloading

Fig. Schematic of the Terra Nova FPSO

Accommodations: sleeping quarters for the crew Helideck: landing platform for transport helicopters Turret area: connecting point between the FPSO and the subsea systems Water injection: inject treated seawater for reservoir Separation-high pressure compression: 1st stage oil-water separation Produced water/glycol mixture: storage for glycol containing absorbed water Separation-low pressure compression: 2nd stage oil-water separation Power generation: gas turbine electric generators Flare: burn off vent gases Poop deck-offloading: loading/unloading area for supply ships Terra Nova FPSO A Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO; also called a "unit" and a "system") is a type of floating tank system used by the offshore oil and gas industry and designed to take all of the oil or gas produced from a nearby platform (s), process it, and store it until the oil or gas can be offloaded onto waiting tankers, or sent through a pipeline. A FSO

is a similar system, but without the possibility to do any processing of the oil or gas. Oil has been produced from offshore locations since the 1950s. Originally, all oil platforms sat on the seabed, but as exploration moved to deeper waters and more distant locations in the 1970s, floating production systems came to be used. Oil produced from offshore production platforms can be transported to the mainland either by pipeline or by tanker. When a tanker solution is chosen, it is necessary to accumulate oil in some form of tank such that an oil tanker is not continuously occupied while sufficient oil is produced to fill the tanker. Often the solution is a decommissioned oil tanker which has been stripped down and equipped with facilities to be connected to a mooring buoy. Oil is accumulated in the FPSO until there is sufficient amount to fill a transport tanker, at which point the transport tanker connects to the stern of the floating storage unit and offloads the oil. An FPSO has the capability to carry out some form of oil separation process obviating the need for such facilities to be located on an oil platform. FPSOs are particularly effective in remote or deepwater locations where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. FPSOs eliminate the need to lay expensive long-distance pipelines from the oil well to an onshore terminal. They can also be used economically in smaller oil fields which can be exhausted in a few years and do not justify the expense of installing a fixed oil platform. Once the field is depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location. The world's largest FPSO is the Kizomba A, with a storage capacity of 2.2 million barrels. Built at a cost of over US$800 million by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, Korea, it is operated by Esso Exploration Angola (ExxonMobil). Located in 1200 meters (3,940 ft) of water at Deepwater block 15,200 statute miles (320 km) offshore in the Atlantic Ocean from Angola, West Africa, it weighs 81,000 tonnes and is 285 meters long, 63 meters wide, and 32 meters high ((935 ft by 207 ft by 105 ft).

Current FPSOs
FPSO Name Vessel Grand Banks Newfoundland Grand Banks Newfoundland North Sea of of

SeaRose FPSO Terra FPSO Petrojarl FPSO Nova Banff

White Rose Terra Nova Banff

Husky Energy Petro-Canada CNR Shell

2005 2002

Anasuria FPSO Schiehallion FPSO

Teal, Teal South and North Sea Guillemot A Schiehallion

North Sea - West of BP Shetland

Petrojarl Foinaven Maersk Curlew Gryphon FPSO

Foinaven Curlew Gryphon

North Sea - West of BP Shetland North Sea North Sea North Sea North Sea North Sea South Africa North Sea Shell Maersk Maersk ConocoPhillips Shell Bluewater Talisman Energy 1993 2006 April 1997 1999 2003 March 1999

Global Producer Dumbarton III MacCulloch FPSO Hwene FPSO Glas Dowr Bleo Holm Brim MacCulloch Pierce Sable Ross

Extraction of natural gas

How is gas produced? The first step is to shoot seismic. Drilling and well testing follow this reconnaissance work. If an economically producible amount of gas is discovered, a gas production installation will be installed and pipelines laid for transport of the gas. The company can then proceed with production, treatment and supply of the gas to the customer. When production comes to an end, the installation is dismantled.

Seismic
Gas is stored in strata of porous rock. In the Netherlands, this kind of rock is to be found between 2000 and 4000 metres beneath the earth?s surface. Not everywhere of course in certain rock structures, there is more chance of discovering gas than in others. Generating vibrations through the earths crust and collecting the data reflected back do reconnaissance of the rock. This is called seismic. Onshore, small amounts of explosives are often used to create the vibrations. In built-up areas, lorries equipped with vibrating plates generate the seismic vibrations. At sea, specially designed vessels are used for generating the seismic vibrations. Different rock reflects the vibrations in different, specific ways. Extremely sensitive sensors pick up the reverberations. The depth of the rock is deducted from the time between the shock and reception of the return signal. Computers translate the data into legible maps of the underground. Based on these maps, the geophysicists of Total E&P Nederland set about exploring for structures, which may contain gas. There can however be no certainty as to whether a rock does in fact contain gas until an exploration well has been drilled and provided the proof.

Exploration well
A drilling installation or rig has to be installed temporarily to drill a test or exploration well. The method is roughly the same whether onshore or offshore. A rotating drill bit bores into the underground. The resulting cuttings are extracted by the continuous pumping of a fluid into the borehole. After purification, this so-called drilling mud can be used again. A steel pipe is inserted into the borehole to ensure that the well does not collapse and to protect the wall of the borehole. The drilling mud also exerts counter pressure should a gas-bearing layer of rock be drilled. Depending on the depth and the nature of the underground, it can take from three weeks to three months to drill a well. When the desired layer of rock has been reached, a special drill bit is used to take samples of the rock. Electrical measurements are taken in the borehole and laboratory analyses of the rock samples will then indicate whether or not gas is present and if so of what quality.

Production test
A production test is designed to provide a clear picture of the production capacity and the size of the reservoir. This is done by permitting the gas to exit freely from the well and taking measurements. For safety reasons, the gas is burned immediately in a flare. It takes an average of a week to test an exploration well

Production
If an economically producible amount of gas is discovered, more wells will in most cases be drilled to permit optimal production of the reserves (the so-called development wells). In the North Sea, the wells are connected up to production platforms. All the production sites are connected by pipeline to the gas treatment platforms. During treatment of the gas, the gas vapour is extracted and purified. The gas is then brought to the required pressure for injection into the pipeline network for transport ashore.

Dismantling
A gas field normally has a lifetime of ten to thirty years. At the end of the production period, the offshore production location has to be dismantled. Already at the design stage of the aboveground installations, the possibilities for recycling various parts are taken into account. Cement plugs seal the underside of the borehole and the pipes.

Refinery Configuration
The type of processing units at the refinery will influence a refiners choice of crude oil. Refineries fall into three broad categories. The simplest is a topping plant, which consists only of a distillation unit and probably a catalytic reformer to provide octane. Yields from this plant would most closely reflect the natural yields from the crude processed. Typically only condensates or light sweet crude would be processed at this type of facility unless markets for heavy fuel oil (HFO) are readily and economically available. Asphalt

plants are topping refineries that run heavy crude oil because they are only interested in producing asphalt. The next level of refining is called a cracking refinery. This refinery takes the gas oil portion from the crude distillation unit (a stream heavier than diesel fuel, but lighter than HFO) and breaks it down further into gasoline and distillate components using catalysts, high temperature and/or pressure. The last level of refining is the coking refinery. This refinery processes residual fuel, the heaviest material from the crude unit and thermally cracks it into lighter product in a coker or a hydrocraker. The addition of a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) or a hydro cracker significantly increases the yield of higher-valued products like gasoline and diesel oil from a barrel of crude, allowing a refinery to process cheaper, heavier crude while producing an equivalent or greater volume of high-valued products. Hydrotreating is a process used to remove sulphur from finished products. As the requirement to produce ultra low sulphur products increases, additional hydrotreating capability is being added to refineries. Refineries that currently have large hydrotreating capability have the ability to process crude oil with higher sulphur content. The figure demonstrates that using the same crude input (heavy crude with a 27 API) yields a very different range of petroleum products depending on the refining units and processes used. In the case of the cracking refinery, the addition of other blending materials at various stages of production is required but the resulting volumetric output is greater than the volume of the crude oil input. Each refinery is unique due to age / technology and modifications over time, but generalizations are possible. The installation of additional conversion capability increases the yield of clean products and reduces the yield of heavy fuel oil. However, increased conversion capability would generally result in higher energy use and, therefore, higher operating costs. These higher operating and capital costs must be weighed against the lower cost of the heavier crude oil.

Fig. Separation unit Crude oil, as it comes from the earth, is a mixture of hydrocarbons compounds of hydrogen and carbon. The basic purpose of a refinery is to separate and transform these various hydrocarbon groups so that they may be used, combined or further treated to create the thousands of products made from petroleum. One of the fundamental processing units is the fractionating tower (shown at right in the drawing). Because hydrocarbons vaporize at different temperatures, the crude oil is heated and the mixture of hot vapors and liquid goes into the tower. The liquid or residual oil is drawn off at the bottom to be used as asphalt or heavy fuel. As the vapors rise, they cool, condense and are drawn off at various levels in the tower; the most volatile are drawn off as gases at the top. These "streams" are piped to other areas of the refinery, such as the catalytic cracker, reformer and alkylation unit, to be formed by various combinations of heat, pressure and chemistry into the products desired.

References
http://www.nioc.org/publications/annualreports/97-98/public_annual_97_98_sec4.htm http://www.autoship.no/News/default.asp?LanguageId=2&NewsId=17 www.fmctechnologies.com/.../FlowAssurance.aspx http://www.planete-energies.com/content/oil-gas/production.html# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_platform http://www.mittelplate.de/REV2/en/page_090.html http://fuelfocus.nrcan.gc.ca/reports/2005-07/overview/configuration_e.cfm www.midwestnpioneer.org/central/conoco.html