Rosneft Develops Software to Model Pipeline Electric Heating
The new tools are expected to reduce capital investment in construction and design.
Specialists at Rosneft’s Tomsk Design Institute have developed proprietary software tools for modeling electric heating systems for pipelines and storage tanks. The tools have already demonstrated their effectiveness. During a pilot project, they helped reduce capital expenditures on construction and installation work at a single well pad by 1.2 million rubles (approximately $14,000). This is particularly important for facilities located in low-temperature regions and at oil fields producing high-viscosity crude.
One of the programs automatically selects optimal system parameters based on input data, including the capacity of heating elements and electrical current characteristics. Another tool transfers the information into a computer-aided design (CAD) environment and automatically generates a complete power supply diagram.
The new software makes it possible to prepare a full set of documentation for electric heating systems at well pads and refinery-wide facilities, from thermal engineering calculations to equipment specifications. The same approach could eventually be scaled up for larger facilities.
