Inflatable Bladder Offloading for Deepwater Riserless Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Deep water offshore oil and gas production systems face challenges with increasing hydrostatic pressure and high costs due to the need for complex and costly riser designs and pressure containment in flowlines, limiting efficient production from deep water fields.
Innovation Solution
The use of inflatable bladders to transport production fluids from the seafloor to an offshore vessel, eliminating the need for flowlines and risers, where subsea trees collect fluids and fill bladders which are then disconnected and conveyed to the surface using buoyancy or underwater vehicles for connection to the vessel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional flowlines and risers are used to transport production fluids from deep water fields, then continuous fluid transport is achieved, but the system complexity and cost increase significantly due to pressure containment requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous fluid transport function is segmented into discrete batches, with each bladder representing an independent transport unit. This eliminates the need for continuous pressure containment while maintaining productivity through sequential transport of multiple bladders.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs disposable or reusable bladders that are filled, transported to the surface, emptied, and returned for refilling. This replaces expensive, complex permanent pressure containment infrastructure with simpler, cyclical transport vessels.
2Adaptability or versatility
If riser designs are adapted for deeper water fields, then water depth capability increases, but the cost and design complexity become prohibitive
Solution Approach 1:
The bladder acts as an intermediary carrier between the subsea production system and the surface vessel. This mediator eliminates the need for direct pressure-containing risers spanning the water column, allowing operation in deeper waters without proportionally increasing riser complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The bladder utilizes flexible, collapsible structure that can be compacted for deployment and inflated for transport. This flexible shell approach replaces rigid pressure-containing risers, significantly reducing the complexity and cost of deep water infrastructure.
3Reliability
If traditional subsea production systems are deployed, then reliable fluid collection is achieved, but infrastructure costs increase with water depth
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the pressure containment function from the fixed infrastructure and transfers it to the movable bladder. This separates the reliable fluid collection function (remaining at the subsea tree) from the transport function (performed by the bladder), reducing overall infrastructure complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces flow assurance issues and infrastructure costs, enabling efficient production from deep water fields by using inflatable bladders to transport hydrocarbons, thus overcoming the limitations of conventional systems.
Implementation Method 1
the inflatable bladder to transport production fluids from the seafloor to an offshore vessel
Data Source
AI summary
A method of conveying a production fluid from an offshore subsea well to an offshore vessel includes deploying an inflatable bladder from the offshore vessel, the inflatable bladder including a bladder valve, and fluidly connecting the inflatable bladder to an offloading port positioned at a seafloor, wherein the offloading port includes a port valve and is in fluid communication with one or more subterranean hydrocarbon-bearing formations. The method further includes opening the bladder and port valves to discharge the production fluid from the offloading port into the inflatable bladder, and thereby resulting in a substantially filled bladder, closing the bladder and port valves, and fluidly disconnecting the substantially filled bladder from the offloading port.