Evaluation the Effect of Emulsion on Pour-Point Reduction of Oil from Fang Oilfield

Abstract

AbstractWax is one of the main problems in petroleum production. Nowadays, there are three methods for wax prevention: mechanical, thermal and chemical methods. The advantage of applying chemical is easy to utilise. Pour point reduction is one of the mechanisms to reduce wax deposition. Moreover, water is produced along with oil leading to form emulsion. Emulsion is the mixing between crude oil and water with emulsifier from crude oil itself. In this study, the objectives are to select potential chemicals for pour point reduction and to investigate the effect emulsion on pour point. The potential chemical selection has been made by running experiment and comparing the effect of pour point on oil and emulsion varying from 0 to 20% water cut. Later, the experiment continues to apply with 40 and 60% water cut to investigate the effect of amount of water cut. There are two groups of chemicals, solvents which are n-heptane and n-hexane and crystal modifiers. From the results, it reveals that both solvents at higher concentration can reduce pour point effectively. However, the crystal modifiers have less effect on pour point reduction. Furthermore, an increasing of percentage of water cut is also one of factors to increase pour point, whilst the effect of chemical on pour point reduction will be reduced. From this study, the problem of wax deposition from crude oil production can be lowered with the pour point reducing agent such as n-heptane and this can be applied in the field for practical oil production in the future.KeywordsPour pointEmulsionChemical method