Spring support is suitable for flowline on wellhead?
Spring support is suitable for flowline on wellhead?
(OP)
Hi gents,
I work in oil and gas exploration and production company. We have many wellhead platforms for production. Normally when we operater wellhead, X'mas tree will have some vertical growth depend on pressure and temperature (maximum 100 mm.). Some wellhead, I design pipe support of flowline without spring support. Some wellhead, I design to have spring support as per result of CAESAR II.
Now I feel spring supports are not necessary for flowline. I think we can allow flowline float from support without any effect.
What do you think about requirement of spring support for the flowline?
I work in oil and gas exploration and production company. We have many wellhead platforms for production. Normally when we operater wellhead, X'mas tree will have some vertical growth depend on pressure and temperature (maximum 100 mm.). Some wellhead, I design pipe support of flowline without spring support. Some wellhead, I design to have spring support as per result of CAESAR II.
Now I feel spring supports are not necessary for flowline. I think we can allow flowline float from support without any effect.
What do you think about requirement of spring support for the flowline?





RE: Spring support is suitable for flowline on wellhead?
Most folks around here in thermal EOR use some type of swivel joint for this application, e.g. swivel joints made by Barco. The steam injector casings around here grow vertically about 2 ft (300 mm) when the injector goes into service. You can anchor the pipe near the wellhead and then put in three Barco joints about 3' (600 mm) apart to make a two-bar linkage. Works perfectly. Use your CII software to work it out. There is a tutorial in the CII manual on modeling a swivel joint - just follow that.
Or use a Z-bend or expansion loop in the pipe at the wellhead.
If your growth is only 100 mm then you could also anchor the pipe some distance off the wellhead and then take advantage of the natural flexibility in the pipe. This only works for small pipe sizes like 2" and 3" (50 mm or 75 mm) because the pipe gets too stiff for sizes larger than that, for reasonable lengths of pipe. Pete
Thanks!
Pete
RE: Spring support is suitable for flowline on wellhead?
RE: Spring support is suitable for flowline on wellhead?
If the degree of rotation is small then you could probably use a hammer union with pretty good success but realize that it will leak at some point in the future. I would be sure to do my homework first and I would weigh their use accounting for the experience level and technical sophistication of your operation especially if you have a thermal operation (steam drive or cyclic steam). The Barco joints are just not that much money for the degree of minimization of risk that you get by their use.
If I was in your shoes I would run my CII model and try a z-bend or expansion loop first at the wellhead. If you only have 100mm of growth then I am fairly sure either of those will work perfectly. Pete
Thanks!
Pete
RE: Spring support is suitable for flowline on wellhead?
RE: Spring support is suitable for flowline on wellhead?
Thanks!
Pete