Optimization Study of Oilfield Gathering and Transportation Parameters Based on the Minimum Energy Consumption of Oil-Gathering Pipeline Networks and Dehydration Stations

The oilfield gathering and transportation system is an important component of oilfield energy use and therefore provides practical opportunities for supporting the dual-carbon goals through operating-parameter optimization. This study combined field cooling trials on high-water-cut well pipelines, thermal-hydraulic calculations of the downstream gathering network, regression-based surrogate models of the dehydration-station equipment, and coordinated system-level energy accounting. A constraint-based direct-search procedure initialized from the actual field operating condition was used to identify the best feasible operating point within the examined ranges. The search was terminated when a complete update cycle produced no further reduction in energy consumption while all engineering constraints remained satisfied. The field trials showed that the investigated well pipelines could be operated below the corresponding crude-oil pour points under the tested high-water-cut conditions. For the transfer-station-to-central-station stage, the original three-pipe heat-tracing process was adjusted to electric heating and hot-water blending according to the pipeline conditions. Within the central processing station, the equipment operating temperatures were coordinated with the upstream pipeline scheme. For the investigated operating condition, the resulting best feasible scheme produced a deterministic 3.18% reduction in total standard-coal-equivalent energy consumption. The results demonstrate the engineering value of coordinating low-temperature operating boundaries, pipeline heating processes, and station operating parameters in an existing high-water-cut gathering system.