paraffins

A presentation from the 2016 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Technical Symposium examines a testing strategy to determine the effectiveness of paraffin inhibitors.

As environments become more challenging, the importance and complexity of flow assurance has evolved. To effectively manage flow assurance, oil and gas operators must take a holistic approach, particularly when working in deepwater offshore environments.

This paper illustrates a numerical approach to estimate the deposition profile of precipitated wax crystals and its effect on flow-related parameters in pipelines. Options for avoiding these issues are also explored.

The effects of turbulence/shear and thermal driving force on wax-deposition characteristics were experimentally studied using a waxy crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico.

Systematic experimental and modeling approaches to designing a safe operating strategy for a 5-km deepwater-subsea-flowline case study are presented to address unplanned shutdown and restart events for waxy-crude production.