Handling Congealing Oil and Paraffin Problems in the Appalachian Fields

Abstract

The handling of congealing oils and paraffin is a serious problem in the Appalachian fields, particularly because the small amount of oil produced perwell makes the removing of paraffin a very costly operation per barrel. Fewoperators realize or have any means of knowing just how much production is loston account of paraffin depositing over the face of the sand and plugging thepores of the sand; but where paraffin has been removed the production increasesindicate that this loss has been considerable. Many operators believe that paraffining is confined to the tubing andpumping equipment, but it is evident that the most serious damage occurs on theface of the sand and a short distance back in the pores. This paper is anattempt to disseminate information on methods and processes in use in theEastern fields for combatting losses of production and operating difficultiescaused by deposition of paraffin in the pores, on the walls, on the tubing andon other pumping equipment. Mills covers this subject so thoroughly thatexcerpts, abstracts and quotations from his work have been used freely in thispaper. Nature of Paraffin Mills states: "The so-called paraffin that collects in oil wells, and inthe pores of the producing sands immediately around the wells, is generallymade up of amorphous wax or uncracked paraffin, asphalt, or other gummyhydrocarbons mixed with more or less water, oil and inorganic silt. Some of thesamples of this ‘paraffin’ collected from oil wells in different fields andexamined by the Bureau of Mines contains as much as 20 per cent. by weight of water and inorganic silt, whereas other samples are composed entirely of waxyhydrocarbons and oil. The inorganic silt accompanying this ‘paraffin’ is mostly fine sand, clayey materials, common salt and finely disseminated precipitatesof calcium and magnesium carbonates. Sulfates of calcium, barium and strontiumare less common constituents of paraffin."