Welcome to the peer-reviewed section of the August 2012 Oil and Gas Facilities magazine. I hope you will find the articles included in this section informative and interesting; they have been reviewed by a group of engineers with experience in their respective topics, a process that adds value and importance to each paper.
The first paper deals with the key areas to consider when designing facilities to assure safe operation. Use and incorporation of all the safety engineering principles outlined in the paper should enable engineers and designers to build facilities that can be operated safely and to reduce the risk of major incidents. The paper also highlights the need for sufficient time to plan and design to adequately address these concerns.
The next paper describes the use of the chemical acrolein in an offshore environment. Acrolein provides a distinctive all-in-one chemical solution for resolving problems with hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans, microbes, and biogenic iron sulfide. The most significant challenge posed by the use of acrolein is that, as a liquid product, it is classified as a toxic inhalation hazard. Measures such as supplying acrolein in specialized containers and transfer systems must be implemented to ensure safe operations.
The final paper discusses the integration of reservoir and pipeline modeling to capture the variations in reservoir-flow dynamics with changes in the surface-network operating conditions. This technique provides the ability to model existing systems and to evaluate situations that may occur in the future. A case study is also included to illustrate the benefits of the system analysis.
Please take the time to promote Oil and Gas Facilities and the peer-reviewed papers in your work environment; this segment of SPE is among its fastest-growing.
Thanks to the reviewers for their efforts with these papers, and thanks very much to our readers for your continued support and participation. I’m confident you’ll enjoy this issue.
