ADVANCED AUTOMATIC CONTROL SYSTEM FOR MINIMIZING GUSHING

摘要

The gushing type of flow of the fluids produced in production wells gives rise to major disruption for production platforms, in the form of large variations in pressure and process levels. In many cases, these disruptions can even lead to an unprogrammed halting of production, and in other cases lead to damage to equipment, such as the heat exchangers. Thus, gushing has a major impact on operational reliability, since it affects the availability and quality of product (BSW, TOG and moisture). Thus, a complex control problem arises when, on the basis of measurements, an attempt is made to act dynamically on the production choke valves in such a way as to define a new flow type that does not present major gushing events. The object of the present invention is to provide an advanced automatic control system for minimizing gushing that acts rapidly in order to prevent this type of flow, and also to protect process equipment. This system is composed of sensors, valves and various types of controller of the PID or ONFC type with aggregated computational algorithms, monitoring a set of operational variables, making it possible to diagnose and control production well gushing. This advanced control system is efficient and eliminates or minimizes gushing during production platform operation.