Chemical Prevention of Asphaltene Flocculation in Oil Production System

Abstract

The change of pressure, temperature or chemical composition of crude oil during oil production constitute the factors that may destabilize the heaviest fraction of crude oil presented in asphaltenes leading to many problems in the production system including the alteration of reservoir rock wettability, permeability reduction, plugging of tubing and production aerial facilities which generate a high production cost because of loss in the well productivity and the need of corrective measures. In this work, a crude oil sample was taken from an Algerian oil field to study the efficiency of two commercial inhibitors. The flocculation onset point of asphaltenes was measured by a solid detection system which is based on the light transmittance of flocculated particles when n-heptane is added. The effectiveness of two inhibitors was evaluated by the solid detection system at different concentration to select the best inhibitor, however, the best additive should provide a good performance at low concentration. Meanwhile, the effect of thermodynamic conditions has been also established in this work, however, the operator conditions of pressure and temperature have affected the efficiency of the added inhibitor on the flocculation of asphaltenes.