Design Of A Subsea Petroleum Production System

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. Paper outlines a system for the complete development of deepwater offshore oilfields incorporating a subsea capsule. The capsule permits the economical drilling, production, permits the economical drilling, production, storage and shipping of oil and gas. Introduction As the petroleum industry moves further offshore into deeper water in the quest for reserves, the cost of drilling and producing has increased dramatically. Conventional techniques restrict the reservoir characteristics and reserves which can be economically exploited in the deep waters now being explored. Standard surface structures, subsurface structures or subsea well heads are extremely costly in initial capital investment or in operational expense. In addition, they represent only a portion of the total system required to produce an offshore reservoir. Additional facilities are needed, such as pipelines, production equipment, storage and pipelines, production equipment, storage and a marine terminal.