Publications

Handil is oil/gas field in Mahakam Block which has been producing since 1975. Along with its maturity, high sand-risky wells were produced with main hazard is hydrocarbon leaks due to sand erosion in the surface facility. In the last 10 (ten) years, many leak cases were occurred at wellhead chokes with emission contribution of 115 kg CO2-equiv per incident. The leak incidents were known based on operator/security patrol. The implementation of Gas Detector or Acoustic Leak Detector is not feasible as there is no electricity source on remote platform. The new leak detector that is economical and automatically shut-in well is urgently required to reduce the GHG emissions and prevent catastrophic-incident (fire/explosion).

To address the environment and sandy wells production challenges, the innovative "Spiral Tube" is implemented. "Spiral Tube" is small pipe made of copper with size ¼ inch-diameter. As well as luggage wrapped with plastic-wrapping, "Spiral Tube" is wrapped around the wellhead choke body around 2-3 layers and connected to existing Emergency Shutdown system. Copper is selected as the main material because of its flexibility (easy to be formed), non-corrosive, and proven tested through "sand blasting" procedure. When a leak occurs, pressurized hydrocarbon gas/liquid containing sand comes out and erode the "Spiral Tube" coils until leak occurs in the copper layer. This condition causes the instrument gas in the "Spiral Tube" drop and send signal to shut-in the well by activating the Emergency Shutdown system.

The "Spiral Tube" innovation is simple, not required electricity, automatic, and low cost. During its implementation, this innovation can reduce hydrocarbon leak emissions up to 96% and contribute to additional sandy wells production of around 69K BOE. All efforts of “Spiral Tube” innovation from initial idea up to field execution are an excellent practice that can be implemented to other oil and gas field.