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Reaching the HORIZON and beyond

Major flow assurance initiative successfully concluded.

Major flow assurance initiative successfully concludes with strategically significant results ready for use in challenging operations such as Ormen Lange and Shtokman.

Oslo, June 19, 2008:

Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell and StatoilHydro have all accepted the final delivery of the HORIZON project from SPT Group and the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE). The project had a four year budget of USD 12.2 million and was completed on schedule in May 2008.

The HORIZON program focuses on R&D which enables new field developments to be located far from existing infrastructure - reducing conservatism in design, increasing reliability of flow assurance predictions, improving operability of multiphase flow-lines, and prolonging the economic life of fields.

Moving from 3D to pre-integrated 3D modelling without loss of computational speed, HORIZON has yielded the largest step-change in flow modelling technology since the introduction of OLGA in 1989.

All these factors will reduce the CAPEX and OPEX costs and increase production.

Specifically the HORIZON project delivers new functionality for:

Long distance transport of wellstreams
Modelling of wells and of dynamically coupled wellbores and reservoirs
Deep water risers and tail-end production
Associated flow assurance problems; sand, wax, hydrates, large waves, and liquid surges

“From the partners’ feedback, we are certain that these flow models are significant enablers for the industry and will increase precision and optimize design of long distance pipelines,” says Norbert Hoyer, Executive Vice President of SPT Group.

The HORIZON project is unparalleled in that the development and research partners (SPT Group and the IFE) make the extended capabilities readily available and integrated into OLGA, the market leading dynamic multiphase flow simulator.

Validation continues in the OLGA verification and improvement project (OVIP), which is in its twelfth year, with the purpose of improving and validating the OLGA code. OVIP is the world’s broadest collection of field data for dynamic modelling of flow assurance. The partners in the current sixth phase are BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, StatoilHydro and Total.

Commercializing R&D results through OLGA ensures the necessary quality and robustness of the new code through extensive validation, maintenance and support in a demanding market, with the full support of SPT Group’s world-wide presence for assistance, support, and training.

This has proven to be a fast-track for getting R&D to the market and available to all parties faced with the challenges of flow assurance.

Beyond

The original five majors are being confirmed as sponsors of the HORIZON II project. The 3 year project is estimated at USD 5.8 million and scheduled for completion in 2011.

The recently completed HORIZON I project introduced significant new flow modelling technology and lent itself towards broader flow assurance challenges in long distance transport and well technology.

The IFE and SPT Group now continue with HORIZON II to refine the technology base further with respect to oil systems and gas-condensate transport modelling.

Press contacts:
Norbert Hoyer, Executive Vice President
Mob: +47 9325 4459