Flow Rate Of Crude Oil Research Articles

FOAM ASSISTED GAS LIFT (FAGL) TECHNIQUE: LABORATORY TESTS, FIELD APPLICATION, AND EVENTUAL EFFECTS ON CRUDE OIL PROCESSING

Even though the foam assisted gas-lift (FAGL) technology is not exactly a technical innovation, curiously, it has attracted the attention of the crude oil industry in recent years. Broadly speaking, the FAGL consists in either boosting the well’s crude oil flow rate while maintaining the same gas injection rate, or, conversely, it refers to maintaining the well´s crude oil production at a reduced gas injection rate. The application of the FAGL technology to a crude oil well is simple, just demanding the dosage of a tailored crude oil foamer surfactant (“crude oil foamer”) to the Gas Lift (GL) stream. Preliminary lab tests and the data recovered from the specialized literature together with the ones derived from the still sparse FAGL field applications have shown promising results. The FAGL´s underlying philosophy, its eventual interference on the topside crude oil processing, and some other pivotal FAGL-related questions are also addressed in this technical contribution.

Improving the technology for the measuring and calculating gas-oil ratio

The article presents the results of the development and field tests of mobile installations for measuring the mass flow rate of crude oil and the volume flow rate of associated petroleum gas, as well as the calculation of the gas factor of oil on their basis. One of the installations for measuring the volume flow of associated gas separated at the reception of the borehole pump and taken from the annulus of the well. The other allows you to select the watered products in the sampling column of the measuring tank and increase the accuracy of measurements of both water and gas. A statistical dependence of the gas separation coefficient at the reception of the electric centrifugal pump is obtained, which allows the installation to be designed in accordance with the amount of gas taken from the annulus of the well. Keywords: gas factor of oil; oil rate; dissolved and free gas; mobile unit; well annulus; gas separation coefficient; pump reception.

Evaluation Study of Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) IND-1000 Pump Model with Analysis of the Flow Rate of Crude Oil in Production Well

ESP is an artificial lift with the principle of a centrifugal pump, where the production fluid that enters through the intake will be thrown by the impeller into the diffuser which will then be directed to the impeller above it so that this process repeats until the production fluid reaches the surface. The longer the production well is produced, the smaller or weakened the Pwf pressure will be, therefore an evaluation is needed in order to produce optimal production. The data needed include: well production rate (Qo), well flow pressure (Pwf), Pump Intake Pressure (PIP), Total Dynamic Head (TDH), Pump type, namely IND-1000 pump, Number of stages, Type of motor, HP motor, motor voltage, Electric current, OD motor, Total voltage, and Total starting voltage. The evaluation methodology used is to determine the optimum production rate through IPR calculations using the vogel method, Pump Intake Pressure (PIP), Total Dynamic Head (TDH), number of stages, and horse power (HHP). From the results of this evaluation, the optimal production rate (Qopt) value was obtained, which was 988.552 BPD. This optimal production rate value is still included in the capacity range, which is between 600-1260 BFPD. Because the optimal production rate is still within the range capacity, this production well does not require a new pump replacement.

Drag Reduction of AL-Ahdab Crude Oil Using Chemical Additives

The viscosity of crude oil has a crucial role in drag reduction during pipeline transportation; hence additives are required to enhancing the flow properties of AL-Ahdab crude oil. In this work, the potato starch biopolymer and CTAB surfactant are utilized to achieve the target. The drag reduction experiments were carried out at different crude oil flow rates (20-35-50 liters/min), pipe diameters (0.5-0.75 -1 inch), and different concentrations of potato starch (500-2000 ppm) and CTAB (100-500 ppm). The results showed that these additives had minimized flow resistance in various operating conditions, the drag reduction percent increased with increasing of additives concentration increase. The maximum drag reduction achieved using CTAB and potato starch is 41.6% and 36.3%, respectively, at 50 liters/min and 1-inch pipe diameter.

Effect of synthesized additive on prevention of organic solid precipitate in the formation rock

This article studies the influence of a novel additive in prevention of asphaltene precipitation in the petroleum formation. N-phenylamino benzyl ethanol, an asphaltene inhibitor has been developed under laboratory conditions and characterized. This article also exhibits a novel approach to understand asphaltene precipitation, where wettability studies are carried out on crude oil aged core by injection of crude oil and asphaltene inhibitor, Crude oil under study has high apparent viscosity and high asphaltene content. The precipitation of solid asphaltene in the core was carried out by pumping the virgin crude oil and crude oil beneficiated with asphaltene inhibitors at 55 °C and 200–1600 psi. Experimental results showed enhanced flow rate of crude oil treated with synthesized additive as compared to commercial one.

Experimental analysis of matrix moveable oil saturation in tight sandstone reservoirs of the south Ordos Basin, China

Tight oil reservoirs in the south Ordos Basin are characterized by fractured, heterogeneous oil-bearing strata (an oil saturation of less than 55% on average), normal pressure (0.8±) and extra-low permeability (less than 0.3 mD). In the Chang 8 tight sandstone reservoir in Honghe oilfield, micro- and nano-pores, especially those with a pore-throat radius of less than 1 μm, account for more than 90%. Fluid flow in the matrix is non-linear and crude oil flow rates are very low under normal pressure gradients. An improved understanding of oil mobility in a tight matrix is key to further development of normal-pressure tight-oil resources in the continental basin. In this study, constant-velocity and high-pressure mercury injection experiments were conducted using samples of typical tight sandstone cores obtained from the south of Ordos Basin. A new method for reconstructing the full-scale pore-throat distribution characteristics of tight sandstone reservoirs was established successfully, based on which multistage centrifugal tests, tests of low-pressure differential displacement of oil by water, and nuclear magnetic resonance tests were conducted in order to obtain the distribution characteristics of moveable fluid in different pores. The moveable oil saturation (MOS) and degree of oil recovery (i.e. ratio of accumulative oil production to producing geologic reserves) of the core samples under different differential pressures for displacement were determined. As for the tight oil reservoirs in the south Ordos Basin, the moveable fluids are mainly stored in sub-micron (0.10–0.5 μm) pores. For Type Ⅰ reservoirs (k > 0.1 mD), the volume percentage of moveable fluid in pores with a radius larger than 0.5 μm is relatively high (greater than 40%). The degree of oil recovery of water flooding serves as the basis for forecasting recoverable reserves for tight oil reservoirs. Recoverable reserves under water flooding, mainly occur in pores with a radius greater than 0.5 μm. The contribution of Type Ⅰ reserves to oil production is observed to be greater than 60%, and the degree of oil recovery reaches up to 17.1%. These results help improve our understanding on the evaluation and classification of Chang 8 tight sandstone reservoirs in Honghe oilfield and serve as theoretical basis for pilot tests to explore effective injection media and development methods to improve the matrix-driven pressure differences and displacement efficiency for oil.

A study of the effectiveness of chemical additives on the characteristic flow of crude oils

This article aims to study the effect of the concentration with additives on the kinematic viscosity of crude oils. Additionally, the influence of solvents that reduces the viscosity of heavy oil with significance to their functions in the flow rate of crude oil, which is transported by conveyor pipes to long distances. Different concentrations of polymers with different types named as Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) were tested in order to analyze the experimental data. The results demonstrate that the impact of the additives to the viscosity and comparing at different temperatures. The data can be used to investigate the types of additives that can increase or reduce the viscosity of crude oils. Furthermore, the outcomes show that the addition of PVC at a concentration of (100ppm) and temperature range (30-50 CO) reduces the viscosity of crude oil to the ultimate value the 12.63% at 30Co. However, the viscosity decreases drastically up to (100ppm), and then the amount of viscosity is increased.

Evaluation of pipeline networks to predict an increase in crude oil flow rate

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of pipeline arrangement in the oil industry, especially for crude oil transportation. The need often arises for increasing the flow rate per unit pressure drop in pipelines. The usual and most economical solution to the problem is to place one or more lines parallel to the original, either partially or throughout the entire length. This paper evaluates this subject by considering the economic aspects. In this work, a single pipeline with length, L = 20000 m and inside diameter D1 = 0.5 m was considered, and three types of pipeline networks include parallel, series, and looped were compared with the single pipe. According to the results, the parallel network has the best performance in comparison with the other pipeline networks, but it needs high costs. The results showed that for the series pipeline, in constant diameter ratio (D2/D1), flow capacity increased by increasing fraction of length (L2/L). For the parallel pipeline, gain coefficient (G=QtQsingle ) increased exponentially with the diameter ratio. This study also showed that in a constant diameter ratio (D2/D1), by increasing L1/L, the gain coefficient increased in the looped pipeline. The results presented in this paper can allow researchers and engineers to evaluate and predict the oil flow rate in network pipelines.

Nanoscale liquid hydrocarbon adsorption on clay minerals: A molecular dynamics simulation of shale oils

As adsorption can influence the phase behavior of shale oils, and consequently their transport, understanding the adsorption behavior of liquid hydrocarbons in shale is essential for the utilization of this valuable resource. In this work, the adsorption of n-nonadecane (saturated hydrocarbon), toluene and 3-methylphenanthrene (aromatic hydrocarbons), and porphyrin (resin) in the slits of clay minerals (montmorillonite, kaolinite, and illite with 10 nm slit apertures) at 358 K and 30 MPa was evaluated through molecular dynamics simulations. The single adsorption layer thicknesses of different hydrocarbons adsorbed on montmorillonite were 0.31–0.48 nm. The total thickness and volume proportion of the adsorption layers, which can be used as a measure of adsorption capacity, were 0.96–1.57 nm and 12.0–23.5%, respectively, and varied with the hydrocarbon component in the order of resin > aromatic > saturated hydrocarbon. The hydrocarbon adsorption capacity of montmorillonite is stronger than that of illite and kaolinite. The structural morphology of hydrocarbon molecules, in addition to the adsorbent pore size, strongly affects adsorption behavior. The adsorption of the long-chain alkane n-nonadecane occurred with minimal distinction between layers. This previously predicted disorder was seen to increase with distance from the mineral surface. The adsorption capacity increased with the polarity of the hydrocarbon component owing to the induction of van der Waals forces, which are reduced along with the Coulomb force at greater distances between the hydrocarbon and clay minerals. Adsorptive affinities are important for crude oil flow rates. Shale oil contains more high-adsorptive oil fractions, making it less fluid and difficult for production. Although this study profiles the nanoscale adsorption behavior of hydrocarbons, it can also function as a meaningful reference for the assessment of shale oil fluidity.

Klasifikasi dan Identifikasi Material terhadap Pengendapan Wax pada Sumur Minyak

The problem in Indonesia, especially for piping problems are generally caused by blockages that interfere with the flow process, these blockages are formed due to the presence of scales or minerals deposited to the pipe wall. Scale formation is due to the alteration of the physical properties of the oil including pour point, viscosity or others. Many technological breakthroughs developed to overcome this problem are with the addition of hot water, the injection of chemical fluids dispersant into crude oil, which serves to lower the pour point of the crude oil that will be in production or use surfactant as inhibitors so that the inner pipe wall will be water wet which can prevent the occurrence of wax deposition on the pipe surface. In subsequent developments the researchers will review by replacing or adding pipe materials with certain materials that are able to inhibit the processing of wax deposits in the pipe walls. By classifying and identifying materials that are able to inhibit the formation of wax on the pipe, it is expected to estimate the design of the pipe string so as not to form wax deposits, such as predicting wax formed at the distance So that the material application can be optimal. Verification of data on tubing will result in supporting data for the determination of the crude oil flow rate with an Excel plot used to determine the rate of wax deposition in tubing. With some selected material is expected researchers are able to determine the best material to handle the problem of wax deposits.

A Microwave Sensing and Imaging Method for Multiphase Flow Metering of Crude Oil Pipes

This article proposes a microwave sensing and imaging method for multiphase flow monitoring and metering in oil and gas pipes. The ultrawideband (UWB) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technique is used to create a high-resolution image of the pipe cross section. The image is, then, used to estimate each phase volume by extracting the edge of each phase. Additionally, the generalized impulsization technique is presented and applied to reconstruct a sharp-image, and decrease the error in flow rate estimation. Furthermore, a novel technique to enhance the detectability of weak targets in the images is proposed. Finally, a novel sectional image reconstruction technique is also applied to improve the imaging and metering of the stratified flows. All the proposed techniques are evaluated through experiments. This study demonstrates the ability to accurately estimate the crude oil flow rate with a maximum error of 3.8 ${\%}$ . These results show that UWB SAR is capable of providing a reliable and noninvasive solution for multiphase flow metering.

Experimental Study of Friction Factor for Iraqi Crude Oil by Using Nano-Al2O3 as Drag Reduction Agent (DRA)

Objectives: The aim of the present work is to study the effect of adding Nano-Al2O3 on the experimental friction factor and pressure drop for Iraqi crude oil. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The effect of three pipe diameters (0.5, 0.75 and 1 inch), five values of Reynolds number and Nano-Al2O3concentration (0.002–0.01 wt %) on the friction factor were studied. Findings: The results illustrated that the friction factor is generally decreased with increasing of Nano-Al2O3 concentration and crude oil flow rate. Application/Improvements: There is very low available literature on the drag reduction process by using Nano-Al2O3 as drag reduction agent for Iraqi crude oil.

IMPROVEMENT OF SHARARA CRUDE OIL FLOW USING POLYSTYRENE AND POLYDIMETHYLSILOXANE AS DRAG REDUCING AGENTS

In this study the applicability of the Libyan crude oil flow induced by improved lab pumping system was examined in order to evaluate the effect of adding polymeric materials of Polystyrene and Polydimethylsiloxane as drag reducing agents (DRA) on the flow of Sharara crude oil in the pipeline. The polymers are injected through a pumping system at different concentrations rounded between (10-100) ppm. Several experiments were carried out to determine the best concentration of polymer, which satisfied lowest drag force on of crude oil flow rate. Furthermore, the effect of additive concentration on the Viscosity(μ), friction factor (ƒ), percentage drag reduction (%DR) and the amount of flow increases (%FI) were determined. The results show that the activities of Polydimethylsiloxane for Drag reduction is higher than drag reduction for Polystyrene. However, the %DR is generally increased with increasing of polymer concentration for all tested additives. It is progressively increased with increasing Reynolds number (Re) at any specific concentration of the polymeric additives. The friction factor is well correlated with Reynolds numbers and polymer concentration according to the relation of the form ƒ= k ReaCb, the results showed good agreement between the observed values and the predicted ones.

Biological Treatments of Oilfield Produced Water: A Comprehensive Review

Summary Crude–oil extraction leads to the production of water, called produced water (PW). PW–flow rate increases along with the time of operation, up to more than 20 times the flow rate of crude oil. PW is often considered toxic because of its complex composition. At the moment, only dispersed hydrocarbons are targeted by water regulation. However, as regulations are becoming more stringent, they are also targeting dissolved compounds and/or the whole effluent toxicity. Consequently, PW treatments have to be more efficient, also allowing for high reliability of installations and high compactness (offshore processes). Biological treatments are often considered to offer the best compromise between removal performances and operating costs. However, their lack of compactness is unsuitable for offshore implementation. Hybrid processes, defined here as the combination of two or more processes, show promising performance and should be further studied to overcome the drawbacks noted in the case of other technologies.

Pressure Wave Elimination in Iraqi Crude Oil Pipelines Using Novel Porous Filter and Electronic Control System

The pressure wave is a serious problem in crude oil transportation pipelines. It is generated at the beginning and at the end of crude oil pumping process or as a result of sudden closing of valves. The high turbulence fluid particles in presence of pressure wave resulting in sever stresses on pipe walls needing for maintenance and replacement after a period of time. It is also leading to dissipation of flow energy consuming much more power for oil pumping. The objective of the present work is to decrease and eliminate the pressure wave in Iraqi crude oil pipelines through designing, manufacturing, and testing of a novel pressure wave filter with optimum design. The experimental system consists from: porous filter, oil pipe, pump, AC drive, and digital pressure transducers. The porous filter that was tested to eliminate the pressure wave is composed from various pipes (0.5 inch Perspex pipe, 1 inch PVC pipe, and 2 inches stainless steel pipe) with different porous materials to absorb the pressure energy from the fluid particles. These porous media are (1.5cm, 1cm, 0.4cm glass beads, and glass cylinders of 2cm length, 2cm outer diameter, and 2mm thickness). The experimental results proved the successful of the invented porous filter for eliminating the pressure wave by 99% using optimum design without suppressing the flow rate of crude oil in the pipe. The results obtained are quite significant since it awards a simple and low-cost solution for a real and practical problem in crude oil transportation sector.

A new approach to study deposition of heavy organic compounds in porous media

A two-dimensional pore network model is presented to validate the deposition of heavy organic compounds (HOC) formed out of an oleic phase in a porous medium. The thickness of the deposition covering the pore surface and the associated pressure drop across each channel of the pore network as well as the overall pressure drop across the entire network model were simulated using the Wang-Civan deposition model. The results were then compared to the measured total pressure drop for each experimental run. Heptane and decane were the two types of precipitator (solvent) used in the experiments with carbon numbers of 7 and 10, respectively. Additionally, three crude oil/solvent volumetric ratios of 10:5, 10:6, and 10:7, as well as three different total flow rates of 4, 8, and 12ml/h were examined to investigate their impacts on the deposition of HOC. The deposition was evaluated through release and deposition coefficients for each experiment. Results indicated that as the solvent carbon number, crude oil/solvent ratio, and total flow rate of crude oil and solvent increases, the deposited layer and the corresponding total pressure drop decreases, the deposition continues until the complete blockage of the entire network because of deposition.

Microfluidic cold stripping of H2S from crude oil in low temperature and natural gas consumption

This study presents the results of removing H2S from crude oil using a micro scale stripper. The main issue in this work is reduction of natural gas consumption and use of low operational temperature. The effects of various operational parameters (such as: crude oil flow rate, natural gas flow rate and temperature of crude oil) on H2S removal efficiency (efficiency) and Specific Energy Consumption (S.E.C) are evaluated. The obtained results, even for lower amounts of the used gas (about one-third) and lower gas temperature (about 18 °C), show a higher efficiency of cold stripping using microchannel compared with other type of strippers. This superior result, with an efficiency of 77.80%, is related to efficient mixing by the employed microchannel at the proposed condition. It has been demonstrated that the efficiency increases with increasing the temperature of crude oil and natural gas flow rate, while temperature does not show a considerable effect on S.E.C. The efficiency and SEC have decreasing trend with increase in flow rate of crude oil at constant temperature and gas flow rate. The mathematical modeling is proposed for H2S removal and the relation between the parameters was determined using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with Central Composite Design (CCD) method. The values of R2 and lack of fit (LOF), obtained from the mathematical model for efficiency, are 0.9589 and 0.2126, respectively. In addition, the values of R2 and LOF for S.E.C are 0.9981 and 0.0606.

Study on the role of Nocardia farcinica in enhancing the flow rate of crude oil

ABSTRACTMicrobial degradation of paraffin wax is an efficient method of removing wax deposition from pipelines and enhancing the flow rate of crude oil. The present study was carried out to isolate a potential paraffin-degrading organism from oil wells of Gujarat. Screening for bacteria-utilizing paraffin wax as the sole source of carbon was carried out using 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol (DCPIP) dye as redox indicator. The selected organism was identified as Nocardia farcinica by 16S rRNA sequencing. Nocardia farcinica showed 100% degradation of heneicosane, 65.99% degradation of docosane, and 50.59% degradation of tricosane, the major components of paraffin wax, in 8 days, which was observed by gas chromatography. Eicosane (86%) and heneicosane (80%) were utilized more by the selected organism compared with octacosane (61%) and triacontane (58%) (DCPIP dye method). Gas chromatographic analysis revealed that the selected organism degraded 50% of paraffin crude oil in 10 days. To determine the ability of the selected organism to enhance flow rate, parameters such as viscosity (cps), surface tension (d/cm2), pour point (°C), and flow rate (min/2 ml) were determined, and the result showed significant reduction in all the parameters after the addition of Nocardia farcinica. The viscosity and surface tension of crude oil were reduced by 22 and 6.30 points, respectively, after the addition of Nocardia farcinica. Pour point and flow rate were reduced by 2 and 11 points, respectively, when compared with control. The above findings indicate that Nocardia farcinica isolated from crude oil plays a major role in enhancing the flow rate of crude oil.

Reactor Design of Microwave Assisted Demetallization of Heavy Crude Oil

In the recent years with the deeper exploiting of world-wide crude oil, the heavy and poor trend of which is aggravating, inducing the metal contents in the oil increasing rapidly. Vanadium (V) and nickel (Ni) are the most harmful metals to petroleum processing among these metals, which mainly displays poisonous effect to the catalysts of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) and hydrogenation. The commonly used technologies to remove these metals can be classified into physical method, chemical method and catalytic hydroprocessing method. Hydrodemetallization (HDM) is widely employed in industry. However, the products of HDM reactions can accumulate in the catalyst pores, causing the formation of deposits which end up obstructing those pores irreversibly, blocking access to the catalyst sites and leading to a progressive loss of catalytic activity. Thus the removal of nickel and vanadium from crude oil has become a challenge in petrochemical processing.This work focuses on these metals removal by using microwave heating technology. A suitable reactor was first developed through numerical simulation technology using COMSOL. It was found that the reactor with a radius of 20 mm shows good coupling with microwaves, and the optimized loading height achieved is 40 mm. Experiments of demetallization were then conducted for Venezuela crude oil using this reactor, the maximum removal rate of 72.4 % and 76.8 % were obtained for Ni and V respectively. However, by using this batch reactor, the temperature distribution is non-uniform within the treated material, a continuous system were therefore developed to overcome the un-even electric field distribution. The reactor was designed as a cylinder with the length of 500 mm, and different crude oil flow rates were simulated, good demetallization rate can be achieved using the same microwave operating conditions.

A Novel Low-Pressure Atomization Method for Burning Emulsified Crude Oil

ABSTRACT A novel, air-assisted atomizer designed for low-pressures and high viscosity fluids was used to produce and burn a spray of emulsified crude oil with different fractions of seawater. For a set of spray nozzles, the operational stability limits based on the crude oil flow rate, atomizing air ratio, seawater fraction, and co-flowing air characteristics were established. The droplet diameter and velocity distributions in the non-reacting spray plume were measured using phase Doppler interferometry. The low air and oil pressure requirements permit low power compressors and pumps with a minimal infrastructure footprint. This technology can be a scalable, effective, and fieldable remediation method for benthic spills or crude oil too emulsified for traditional in situ burning.