Richards

Welcome, subscribers, wherever you are, to the June issue of this journal. We have assembled an interesting mix of papers for you this time that I hope you will enjoy reading, and from which you may learn something new, as I have. I'm told that the wise man has few words, so here is a brief introduction to each paper.

SPE 102727—Effects of High Oil Viscosity on Oil/Gas Flow Behavior in Horizontal Pipes. This is an interesting paper that highlights the need for further work to define pressure drop correlations for viscous oils. It describes an experimental study with air and viscous oil, the results of which are compared with existing correlations. Areas for further study are identified.

SPE 106794—Reducing Incidents in Marine Personnel Transfer. This paper examines the causes of incidents resulting in injuries and fatalities on marine transfer operations. This is especially important because many small wellhead structures are not designed with helipads, and thus rely on marine transfers.

SPE 106814—Predicted Impacts From Offshore Produced Water Discharges on Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. This paper considers the impact of produced water discharge on the dissolved oxygen levels in the sea. It confirms that oxygen depletion each year is largely caused by other factors than platform emissions.

SPE 118891—Novel Coalescer Technology in First-Stage Separator Enables Single-Stage Separation and Heavy-Oil Separation. Heavy oil and water can be difficult to separate because of low density differences and also because many heavy oils form emulsions in water. This paper describes an interesting technology that has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of separating these fluids. Further testing of this technology for extra-heavy crude oil would be beneficial in extending the operational envelope.

SPE 118892—AKPO: A Giant Deep Offshore Development. This paper describes the challenges of the AKPO development in Nigeria. Although this journal does not normally publish such case histories, this one stood out as worthy of publication because of the challenges involved with an HPHT deepwater development offshore Nigeria.

SPE 107430—Economic Modeling of an Oil and Gas Project Involving Carbon Capture and Storage: Snøhvit LNG Field (Barents Sea, Norway). The industry is increasingly leading the way in the field of carbon capture and storage (sequestration), and this paper illustrates the economic analysis that was conducted for the Snøhvit field offshore Norway. This of course presupposes that the regulatory authorities have set up a system that applies a value to CO₂ emissions, which is the case in northwest Europe.

SPE 109785—Operating Multiphase Helicoaxial Pumps in Series to Develop a Satellite Oil Field in a Remote Desert Location. This is a novel paper that describes the experiences of one company in operating pumps in series. While monophasic pumps in series are common, this is believed to be the first application of series pumping to multiphase fluids.

I hope you enjoy this edition of SPEPFC as much as I enjoy writing these paragraphs. If you would like to contribute to the success of this journal by volunteering to review papers or to submit a paper for review, please contact me. Please post your thoughts regarding these papers to the appropriate discussion board by way of the Discussion link found below each title on the Table of Contents page. If you have any further questions or comments, positive or negative, please feel free to contact the Executive Editor through the SPE member database. With that, I'll see you again in 3 months, God willing.