RESEARCH AND IMPROVEMENT OF OIL FIELD DEWATERING

Abstract

A steady increase in the water content of the extracted oil, an increase in the volume of heavy grades of oil with stable emulsions, an increase in the proportion of thick oil in the total volume of refined oil due to the imperfection of the oil dewatering process is far from a complete list of factors determining the importance and relevance of the issue of optimal automatic control of the oil dewatering process in the fields today. Although this problem is not new to the oil industry, its solution is not yet completed. This circumstance is due to insufficient knowledge of the processes of oil preparation due to the emerging objective difficulties and the lack of adequate models that could be used to solve the problems of stabilization and optimization of the oil dewatering process. The paper presents the research on the process of breaking highly-stable heavy oil emulsions by water evaporation. An equation has been derived and relevant curves have been plotted to calculate the required heating temperature. This study shows the dependence of hydrocarbon distillate yield on heating temperature, boiling point oil composition and the initial water cut of the emulsion. The technology of oil dehydration from the field has been tested.