Published on: 01/16/2023
Since 2016, ESSS O&G and Petrogal Brasil have partnered to create innovative solutions for the oil and gas market. The pioneering ALFAsim project has grown throughout this period, now offering operations simulation even beyond the design period.
ESSS O&G is recognized for establishing successful partnerships with major companies in the oil and gas market, developing innovative technologies and cleaner, more efficient, and safer processes for computer simulation and digital twins. An example of this collaboration is ALFAsim, a technology created with Petrogal Brasil, a joint venture between Galp and Sinopec, to simulate wells and oil and gas transportation lines.
Petrogal has partnered with ESSS O&G since 2016, when the pioneering project to develop ALFAsim began. Since then, the team has developed five flow assurance projects, most recently focusing on modeling three-phase flows, quantifying uncertainties and risk analysis, predicting the formation and transport of hydrates, and modeling the life cycle of CO2.
ALFAsim is the result of this extensive R&D program, which was developed through the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP) – Special Participation Clause. A multiphase, dynamic, and unidimensional flow simulator, ALFAsim helps engineers design safer and more robust wells, production, and transportation lines in the most diverse operating scenarios, especially in Brazilian pre-salt conditions.
Today, ALFAsim can simulate existing operations, including optimizing production and diagnosing failures, promoting a greater understanding of the production system’s behavior and allowing an engineering team to design strategies to mitigate flow assurance risks. With ALFAsim, numerical simulation of multiphase flows can play a key role in decision-making and in reducing production costs. Uncertainties can be quantified correctly. There’s no need to rely on data based on subjective experiences or learnings from other products in order to build profitable production and accurate risk analysis.
Vinicius Girardi, Business Development Manager at ESSS O&G, is confident that these new projects and the partnership with Petrogal will revolutionize the way simulations are used for decision-making in the O&G industry. According to Girardi, “The methods developed in this collaboration can bring greater objectivity and rigor in the treatment of uncertainties, increasing a project’s cost-effectiveness without reducing operational and environmental safety, which in the long run helps engineers design more efficient operations with lower emissions. In addition, the modeling of the entire CO2 cycle, from production to reinjection, integrating the flow in the wells and the processing in the production unit, makes ALFAsim a powerful tool for the design of carbon capture, transport, and storage systems.”
Galp believes that ALFAsim is the culmination of the expertise of Brazilian professionals and experts in the areas of multiphase flow and flow assurance in a fully national cutting-edge product. This project makes it possible to keep premier researchers working within Brazilian companies, such as ESSS, universities, and research centers, guaranteeing ALFAsim its national and international recognition.
ESSS O&G has been providing solutions and services to the energy and oil and gas markets for more than 25 years. The company is internationally recognized for offering a complete set of simulation solutions, for providing services of high complexity and expert consulting, and for the excellence of its customer support. ESSS’s solutions promote the digitalization of the energy and oil and gas industry, providing its customers with more assertive decision-making, either at the design stage or during execution, through computer simulation and real-time monitoring, respectively. Companies in the energy industry that wish to apply computer simulation solutions to improve processes and ensure project safety can contact the company and talk to a team of experts.
Galp is an integrated energy company developing profitable and sustainable solutions in 11 countries. Galp is focused on developing a resilient E&P portfolio, offering an efficient and competitive downstream business providing innovative and differentiating solutions to help the world transition to a low-carbon economy.
