Asphaltenes Flocculation in Light Crude Oils: A Chemical Approach to the Problem

Abstract

This article describes the state‐of‐the‐art of the phenomena associated to the flocculation and precipitation of asphaltenes as well as the solutions used to prevent this kind of phase behavior problem in a Brazilian light (420 API) crude oil. A discussion on how to diagnose this light crude tendency to flocculate its low concentration (0.3%) asphaltenes and on the approach to (chemically) mitigate the phenomena also are provided. To address the problem a comprehensive study was carried out as follows: 1) Scoping trials to assess the so‐called asphaltenes deposition envelope (ADE) of the crude, a key parameter to design the chemical injection system and to production management. To accomplish that a mono‐phase crude oil sample was collected and tests were performed on a PVT cell equipped with a solid detection system. These PVT results enabled us to evidence the reversibility of the asphaltenes flocculation process—above the bubble point pressure—which is in agreement with the Hildebrand theory for macromolecules in hydrotopic solutions and; 2) A suite of field experiments to address the following issues: asphaltenes flocculation inhibitor dosage optimization; how to collect inhibitor‐free oil samples for well site evaluation; adaptation of the existing analytical methods for well site analysis and: setting up guidelines against which measure the inhibitor performance in this low‐asphaltenes concentration crude oil. The engineered solutions that ended up being developed from this comprehensive study are now incorporated to Petrobras flow assurance solutions portfolio.