Development of an Analytical Tool for the Design of Deep Water Riser/Flow Line Thermal Insulation Systems

Abstract

The offshore oil and gas industry is predicting the discovery of more and more deep water reservoirs. Increased water depths create a requirement for reliable pipelines to economically recover these deep water fields and also to minimize flow assurance problems. Increased flow assurance problems in deeper waters increase the need for thermally insulated pipelines. In this paper we present an overview of the key issues in the analysis and design of thermal insulation systems, identify and discuss how these are addressed by the design tools developed within the DeFRIS project and present results used to validate the algorithms incorporated into the design tool.