Pipesim steady-state multiphase flow simulator

Unlock production potential with the Pipesim™ steady-state multiphase flow simulator

The Pipesim simulator offers the industry’s most comprehensive steady-state flow assurance workflows for front-end system design and production operations. The flow assurance capabilities of the simulator enable engineers to ensure safe and effective fluid transport—from sizing of facilities, pipelines, and lift systems, to ensuring effective liquids and solids management, to well and pipeline integrity. Shared heat transfer, multiphase flow, and fluid behavior methodologies ensure data quality and consistency between the steady-state and transient analyses.

Pipesim steady-state multiphase flow simulator enables production and flow assurance engineers design and optimize petroleum production systems by incorporating state of the art technologies in multiphase flow modeling, heat transfer and fluid behavior, all enabled by an intuitive user interface for reliable multiphase flow modeling. Using Pipesim, you can design and optimize individual well production or injection systems and combine any number of wells with the associated surface facilities.

The Pipesim simulator includes advanced three-phase mechanistic models, rigorous heat transfer modeling and comprehensive PVT modeling options, enabling simulation accuracy and better flow predictions . An ESRI-supported GIS map canvas helps deliver true spatial representation of wells, equipment and networks. Networks can be built either on the GIS canvas or automatically using a GIS shapefile. Rapid well model building and analysis are done with an interactive graphical wellbore, saving time and reducing errors in network setup thus enhancing productivity and allowing engineers focus on analysis rather than setup.

Pipesim simulator overview
Generate scenarios that show a clear path to performance optimization by maximizing production at lower cost, honoring facility constraints, maintaining asset integrity, and increasing reservoir recovery.

Why Pipesim is the trusted choice for flow assurance and production optimization

Comprehensive well modeling capabilities
Pipesim simulator offers a wide range of simulation capabilities for well performance design, operation and optimization. You can model oil and gas production wells with various inflow performance relationship (IPR) models, using an interactive user interface to design wellbore completions and add various downhole equipment. For artificial lifting, Pipesim simulator offers comprehensive workflows for designing and selecting the optimum electric submersible pumps or gas lift valves. You can also model sucker-rod pumps and PCPs with ease and run sensitivity analysis to optimize artificial lift operations.

Pipesim simulator offers more than one well performance simulation workflow. The standard nodal analysis is used to visualize the inflow and outflow performance curves, demonstrate the impact of reservoir productivity and equipment deliverability, and analyze various intervention and “what-if” scenarios. On the other hand, the pressure/temperature profile (P/T profile) task is an iterative approach to directly solve for the operating conditions, starting from the reservoir, across the sand-face and up the tubing until it reaches the branch end, which is selected by the user. The P/T profile task is fast and robust to directly solve for the required inlet pressure (Pi) or outlet pressure (Po) for a given flow rate (Q), solve for Q given the Pi and Po, or solve for any specific parameter, for a given set of the three parameters Pi, Po and Q.

Supported well-centric simulation tasks include P/T profile, nodal analysis, system analysis (parametric studies), model calibration, vertical flow performance (VFP) tables, well curves, ESP design, gas lift deepest injection point, gas lift response, gas lift design, gas lift diagnostics and perforation design.

Pipesim simulator advanced well modeling
In addition to simulating and optimizing conventional production and injection wells, Pipesim simulator offers a wide range of capabilities for modelling complex well scenarios and sophisticated well configurations. You can model smart well completion with flow control valves, as well as dual-string and concentric tubing configurations. These configurations are widely used to produce from multiple isolated zones, or to use the same well for oil production and water injection in the same wellbore. They can also be used for various SAGD operations, such as injecting steam and hydrocarbon gas in the same well.

Enhanced network design and optimization
To model production or injection systems with multiple wells, sources, sinks and surface facilities, Pipesim simulator offers the network perspective. You can easily switch between the well perspective and the network perspective with a click of a button. Under the network perspective, the network simulation task can be run with surface boundary conditions only. Users can specify surface pressure or flow rate values without considering the subsurface details, which simplifies the simulation task. Using the advanced well option, you can connect injection and production networks in one model or split well production into independent networks.

In addition to the network simulation task, network optimization allows users to maximize hydrocarbon production by distributing the required artificial lift quantities, such as gas lift rate or pumping frequencies to the wells, considering the individual well hydraulics and deliverability while honoring user-specified constraints on wells, flowlines, or global levels.

Advanced PVT and heat transfer modeling
Pipesim simulator offers a wide range of fluid modeling options to facilitate modeling your assets in the most practical and accurate manner. Below are the various available fluid modeling options:

• Black oil
  Under black oil fluid option, you can model any fluid, including oil, gas, and water, with the ability to calibrate it using various PVT fluid correlations against relevant test reports. You can select from single point or multi-point calibration options depending on the data available to you.

• Interactive compositional fluid
  Under the compositional fluid option, you can select from three seamlessly integrated compositional fluid engines: Symmetry, Multiflash (from KBC) and E300. Each fluid engine has its own equation of state and options to model the fluid. From the Pipesim simulator user interface, you can choose between the standard or user-defined components with their molar percentages to define the fluid. The user interface allows for the ease of plotting the fluid phase diagram and for performing interactive compositional fluid flashing under any given pressure and temperature values.
• Compositional fluid files
  For more comprehensive compositional fluid tuning and advanced modeling, Pipesim simulator can import exported PVT files from Multiflash (*.MFL). The *.MFL file will include various details such as tuned equation of state, viscosity, thermal conductivity.

Reliable flow assurance and lifecycle optimization

Safe and effective fluid transport
The Pipesim simulator equips engineers with robust tools to ensure the safe, efficient and reliable movement of multiphase fluids from the reservoir to processing facilities. It supports critical design and operational decisions, such as sizing pipelines, facilities and artificial lift systems while addressing key challenges like liquid loading, wax and hydrate formation, and solids deposition.

Steady-state flow assurance, from concept to operations
The Pipesim simulator empowers users to optimize flow performance from individual wells to complex production networks. By enabling accurate modeling of fluid behavior and system interactions, Pipesim simulator supports better design decisions, enhances operational efficiency, and maximizes the economic potential of assets throughout their lifecycle. This ensures that production systems are both technically sound and economically optimized delivering long-term value from concept through to daily operations.

Optimize system integrity and flow performance
The Pipesim simulator offers the industry’s most comprehensive steady-state flow assurance workflows for front-end system design and production operations. The flow assurance capabilities of the simulator enable engineers to ensure safe and effective fluid transport—from sizing of facilities, pipelines, and lift systems, to ensuring effective liquids and solids management, to well and pipeline integrity. Shared heat transfer, multiphase flow, and fluid behavior methodologies ensure data quality and consistency between the steady-state and transient analyses.

Design with confidence
The GIS map canvas provides an accurate spatial view of wells, equipment and networks, enabling users to build models directly on the map or automatically from GIS shapefiles. Additionally, the ability to add custom layers connected to internal enterprise map services allows users to overlay operational data, helping them to design more efficient and optimized network structure with greater context and confidence.

Pipesim 2025 new features

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