| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this work is to establish the basis of a methodology for quantifying process equipment, as a response to the different parameters which influence process design. Defining the process facility is one of the main challenges related to project definition in the earliest phases of project development. The focus of revolves around the factors which influence the degree of project definition in the earliest phases of development. The work involves considerations to how experience data may be used to reduce the time required to define the scope of work and produce accurate cost estimates for offshore projects. The majority of the work involves consideration to process equipment selection and methods for estimating its physical parameters. An existing estimation system exists, where equipment weights and footprint serves as input to the estimation procedures for the rest of the topside facility. It is therefore of interest that the initial estimates of the process facilities is as accurate as possible.
This work will establish an estimation basis for process equipment that illustrates how cost and weight estimates of offshore topside structures are conducted and how they relate to project development through all project phases. Estimation procedures are commonly a subject of discretion in the oil and gas industry. Few procedures have been made public; which makes it a challenging but very interesting subject.
Firstly, a review of cost estimation techniques is presented. The first part explains how they are done, what they are intended for and why the most effective techniques tend to change with project maturity. The most effective estimation technique for early phase application revolves around the use of experience data from past projects. When producing total offshore project estimates, the first thing to be estimated is the size and weight of the topside facilities. Because the rest of the topside attributes are directly or indirectly dependent on the process facilities, it is of special importance that this first estimate is accurate. This work will elaborate on procedures that can be applied to produce estimates for the topside process facility, and depict technical considerations that must be taken into account when doing so. Consequently, the process equipment plays a central role in every offshore project, affecting almost every aspect of the platform construction, implicitly becoming a major cost driver and indicator for the entire project. It is of interest to develop a systemized way of selecting process equipment as a response to changes to the governing reservoir characteristics, quantify the consequences this has for the physical parameters of different process equipment solutions and configurations. Process simulations have been performed using Aspen Hysys, Aspen Economic Process Analyzer and Aspen Capital Cost Estimator to produce weight, footprint and cost estimates of a process facility at for a specified flow-rate of oil, gas and water. This work aims to increase the precision and level of detail for the input parameters of total topside weight and cost estimates. | en |
