Abstract: Slugging of fluids produced in petroleum wells creates major disturbances for production rigs, and leads to major variation in process pressures and levels. In many cases, these disturbances cause unscheduled production stops, and in others may damage equipment such as heat exchangers. Thus slugging may have a major impact on the reliability of the operation, as it may affect product availability and quality (BSW, TOG and Moisture). Therefore, there is a complex control problem to use measurements to dynamically act on the production choke valves to set a new type of flow, without major slugging. The purpose of this invention is to provide an Advanced Automated Control System for minimizing slugging that can quickly act to avoid this type of flow as well as protect the process equipment.

Abstract: Slugging of fluids produced in petroleum wells creates major disturbances for production rigs, and leads to major variation in process pressures and levels. In many cases, these disturbances cause unscheduled production stops, and in others may damage equipments such as heat exchangers. Thus slugging have a major impact on the reliability of the operation, as they affect product availability and quality (BSW, TOG and Moisture). Therefore, there is a complex control problem to use measurements to dynamically act on the production choke valves to set a new type of flow, without major slugging. The purpose of this invention is to provide an Advanced Automated Control System for minimizing slugging that can quickly act to avoid this type of flow as well as protect the process equipment. This system is comprised of sensors, valves and numerous PID or ONFC type controllers using aggregate computer algorithms to monitor a set of operating variables that enable diagnosing and controlling production well slugging.