GE Oil & Gas Subsea Upgrade Boosts Angolan Deepwater Oil Production
GE Oil & Gas, a world leading company in oil and gas advanced technology equipment and services, has successfully completed a subsea equipment upgrade that is helping to increase production in a deepwater oil field off the coast of Angola.Under a contract with Cabinda Gulf Co. of Angola, a subsidiary of U.S. oil company Chevron, GE’s Drilling & Production business applied the latest VetcoGray technology to retrofit existing subsea trees in the Lobito Tomboco field.
The technology retrofit was conducted to support the first such deepwater scale-squeeze operation intended to reduce the formation of scale on initial equipment and pipeline systems, leading to increased productivity at the field.
Manuel Terranova, Global Regional Leader, GE Oil & Gas said: “Our reliable technology and solutions-based approach is making the difference for customers, delivering value and maximizing their production efficiency. The infrastructure we have built up in Angola with Chevron was a key factor in the overall success of the project.”
New GE equipment supplied for the project included scale-squeeze inserts for short- and long-term operations, a fluid cap, a choke insert with full functionality with an additional port for chemical injection, and a chemical line with landing skid. The use of a VetcoGray choke interface, a port in the subsea tree, allows choke inserts (the pressure/flow controlling element) to be removed and replaced as required during the life of the field.
The project marks the first time that a retrofit technology has been used in deepwater scale-squeeze. This type of system has now been extended for deepwater scale squeeze operations up to 1,850 feet with further plans to extend the technology to 3,500 feet in similar projects for the region.