Hydrocarbon/Solvent Treatment for Inhibiting Paraffin and Suspending Asphaltenes in Oil Wells
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Hydrocarbon/Solvent Treatment for Inhibiting Paraffin and Suspending Asphaltenes in Oil Wells Gale J. Campbell; Gale J. Campbell Chemex, Inc. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar John M. Griffin John M. Griffin Chemex, Inc. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 2003. Paper Number: SPE-81004-MS https://doi.org/10.2118/81004-MS Published: April 27 2003 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Campbell, Gale J., and John M. Griffin. "Hydrocarbon/Solvent Treatment for Inhibiting Paraffin and Suspending Asphaltenes in Oil Wells." Paper presented at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 2003. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/81004-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll ProceedingsSociety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)SPE Latin America and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference Search Advanced Search AbstractA blend of polymeric hydrocarbons within a solvent solution (HIS-polymer) has been developed (patent pending) that enhances the flow capacity of oil wells adversely effected byhigh viscosity,tubular and rock matrix plugging due to precipitation of paraffin and asphaltene.Theoretical mechanisms contributing to observed flow increase following application of HIS-polymer in field conditions includepreferential wetting of matrix surfaces by HIS-polymer,reduction of relative permeability to water and increase of relative permeability to oil,stabilizing interfacial tension,generation of heat which disperses paraffin and asphaltenes sufficiently for them to enter flow stream,inhibition of paraffin precipitation,deasphalting heavy crudes through solvent action,dispersing and inhibiting the onset of asphaltene precipitation.Long-term benefit of treatment (exceeding 9 months) is explained by preference for polymeric hydrocarbon to wet previously water-wet matrix. Verification of same is reported using dual-drop-dual-crystal technique in which a 500 ppm concentration of HIS-polymer was observed to convert both a water-wet quartz and calcite to a polymeric hydrocarbon-wet surface.Field treatment by bullheading through tubing into formation and over displacing with diesel or lease crude is reported. This treatment was for a 15° API oil in eastern Venezuela and resulted in a three-fold production increase from 104 barrels of oil per day (BOPD); production was sustained for an excess of 60 days. Tripling of production in a west Texas stripper well is also included. The HIS-polymer benefits operators by replacing diluents that have been historically used to decrease pressure of heavy oil laden flowlines.IntroductionDeposition of asphaltenes and paraffins causes plugging of production lines, oil tubulars, and the formation face in and around the sandface. Paraffin damage from the formation to the refinery is also problematic. Paraffin deposition costs oil companies hundreds of millions of dollars per year in removal costs and more in lost production.1 Preponderance of asphaltenes exists in southern Mexico, the West Texas and Alaska producing regions of the United States, Alberta, Canada, and the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.2World reserves of heavy oil occur in order of greatest to least in Orinoco basin of eastern Venezuela, former Soviet Union, Canada, Africa, United States, non-Venezuelan Latin American countries, Asia, and Western Europe.3 Venezuela's Orinoco basin contains 42-billion tones or more than double the former Soviet Union. Mississippi and Western Alabama also produce heavy oils, e.g., the Lower Tuscaloosa in Lamar County, Mississippi yields a 17°API oil.Paraffin and Asphaltene ConstituentsA majority of crude oils that are >20° API contain a significant portion of paraffin or n-alkane components. Paraffins >C20H42 are the components that cause deposition or congealing oil in crude oil systems. Paraffins are straight chain linear structures composed entirely of carbon and hydrogen with the largest chain detected by Barker et al.1 to be C103H208.Houchin and Hubdon4 have defined asphaltene and paraffin deposits as a "mixture of linear and branched-chain hydrocarbons generally ranging from C18H38 to C60H122. Most deposited paraffin also contains other organic and inorganic matter such as crude oil, gums, resins, asphaltenes, sand, silt, metal oxides, and water." Quantification of asphaltene fraction of a crude oil is determined by precipitating it with the addition of n-pentane or some similar low molecular weight paraffin solvent. Asphaltic materials are thought to be a colloidal dispersion permeated by adsorbed maltene molecules.Treatment of paraffins is handled by two methods: solvency and/or dispersion. While solvents dissolve paraffins by breaking down the crystal lattice, dispersants prevent their agglomeration. Pour point testing was conducted on the HIS-polymer to determine impact on crude oil. This provided an indirect method for measuring the crystallization of crudes associated with paraffin content.Barker et al.1 has divided solvents for dissolving paraffins into two general classes: aliphatic and aromatic. Keywords: hispolymer, quartz, society of petroleum engineers, relative permeability, investigation, interfacial tension, paraffin, viscosity, flow assurance, diluent Subjects: Flow Assurance, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Precipitates (paraffin, asphaltenes, etc.) This content is only available via PDF. 2003. Society of Petroleum Engineers You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".