Flow assurance for offshore production

Today, deep water activity throughout Asia Pacific outpaces traditional offshore activities in many parts of the world. This trend is growing in Indonesia which is accelerating offshore production to address its own domestic needs.    With a population of more than 250 million people, Indonesia is the most populous country in Southeast Asia and the fourth most populous country in the world, behind China, India and the United States. The country's total energy consumption grew by more than 40% over the last decade according to the Indonesian government.    Natural gas, which has previously accounted for just 15% of the country's energy mix, is expected to play a much larger role in the energy mix moving forward. By 2025, the government plans to reduce its reliance on oil, and double its natural gas consumption to more than 30%, to meet its domestic needs.    To meet this goal, Indonesia will need to tap its western ocean basins which are rich in resources, with fields such as Gendalo, Maha, Gandang, Gehem and Bangka containing up to four Trillion Cubic Feet (Tcf) of recoverable gas reserves.    A challenge in exploiting these energy rich basins is the presence of gas condensates which exist in many of these offshore fields, along with the presence of natural-gas hydrates; ice-like solids that form when light hydrocarbons and water mix under high pressure and low temperature. Hydrates not only restrict flow, but they can also form solid plugs that can block production and damage equipment.