Oilfield chemistry
Acting director of the new center Ale Hakala outlines the research priorities guiding the newly established center’s focus on production enhancement technologies.
Marking a major milestone as the Gulf of Mexico’s second 20,000-psi deepwater development, the project underscores how advanced high-pressure technology, management of flow challenges, and the floating production system’s role as a regional hub are helping open the door to more Inboard Wilcox development.
This paper describes a decision-support system that integrates field data, system specifications, and simulation tools to quantify system performance, forecast operational challenges, and evaluate the effect of system modifications in water management.
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A wide range of corrosive elements and compounds from a variety of crudes has led to a renewed industry focus on corrosion and the effects it has on pipelines and vessels. -
A relatively small concentration of a defoamer can have a significant impact on the dynamics of multiphase flow within a pipe, but the effect is generally temporary.
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As producers push logistical and technological limits to operate in deeper water and more remote locations, maintaining and repairing offshore structures can present a number of challenges unique to these environments. One of the costliest is corrosion.
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As the world's supply of crude becomes heavier, many of the world’s oil producers will have to think more carefully about heavy crudes and the challenges they pose for processing, storage, and transportation.
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In an SPE webinar, “Foaming in Separators: Handling and Operation,” Wally Georgie, principal consultant at Maxoil Solutions, presented an overview of foam generation and how the design of processes and chemical management can exacerbate its detrimental effects in separators.
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Issues associated with mercury’s presence in hydrocarbon processing systems have become more apparent as deeper and hotter reservoirs (often with higher levels of mercury) were exploited, and with the low-temperature gas processing used for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas liquids.
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Semoga and Kaji fields experienced reservoir souring and suffered a history of calcium-carbonate (CaCO3) -scale cases before a proper scale-inhibition program was implemented. Problems with a free water knockout discovered continued scale issues, leading to investigation of the reasons.
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The high level of dissolved iron commonly present in the Marcellus waters of Pennsylvania and West Virginia adversely affects the ability of scale inhibitor to inhibit calcium carbonate scale. This study tests two new products under a range of conditions.
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Higher oil prices has created increased interest in chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) using polymers, surfactants, and alkalis. This technology poses some special challenges, especially around water treatment.
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Offshore production systems can be impacted negatively by numerous problems attributed to bacterial activity, associated hydrogen sulfide and biogenic iron sulfides, and mercaptan production. Acrolein provides a distinctive all-in-one chemical solution to assist in resolving these problems.
