OLGA is a modelling tool for
transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
of
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
,
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
and
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...
in the same
pipeline, so-called
multiphase transportation. The name is short for "oil and gas simulator". The main challenge with multiphase fluid flow is the formation of slugs (plugs of oil and water) in the pipelines, which causes large problems at the receiving end at the platform or the onshore plant. The modelling tool makes it possible to calculate the fluid flow and safely bring the flow to the receiving destination on shore, on a platform or a production ship through the pipes.
History
The idea for the tool was conceived in 1979 by two researchers at
IFE, Norway: Dag Malnes and Kjell Bendiksen. The first version of OLGA was financed by
Statoil and was ready in 1980. The tool was developed further by IFE in collaboration with
SINTEF in the 1980s.
January 1, 1984 a joint industry agreement was signed by Statoil, IFE and SINTEF on the continued development of OLGA. IFE had the main responsibility for developing the model, while the technical experiments were performed in SINTEF’s laboratory at Tiller.
Until 2012 the SPT Group owned the rights to OLGA. In March 2012, Schlumberger announced an agreement with Altor Fund II for the acquisition of SPT Group. The acquisition was completed in Q2. SPT Group, founded in 1971, was headquartered in Norway employing approximately 280 people in 11 countries at the time of the acquisition. The tool has been under continuous and still ongoing development, among others in the HORIZON II project where IFE and SPT Group are partners. OLGA has a global market share of about 90%. The technology is regarded as a central success for Norwegian petroleum research.
OLGA has enabled the development of oil and gas fields at deeper seas and farther from shore than would otherwise be possible without this technology, for example the fields Troll, Ormen Lange and Snøhvit.
[http://www.sintef.no/cgi-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=0&page_id=2822&query=olga&hiword=OLGAS%20olga%20]
References
The history of OLGA
Go with the Flow - article 03 Sep 2008A Transient Multiphase Temperature Prediction Program (Erickson, D.D., Mai, M.C., Conoco Inc)Schlumberger Announces Agreement to Acquire SPT Group{{refend
External links
OLGA
Petroleum technology
Multiphase flow
Computational science
Applied mathematics
Research and development in Norway