An Evaluation of the Performance of Selected Wax Inhibitors on Paraffin Deposition of Nigerian Crude Oils

• Published in: Petroleum science and technology 2006-05, Vol.24 (2), p.195-206
• Main Authors: Bello, O. O., Fasesan, S. O., Teodoriu, C., Reinicke, K. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Crude oil; Crude oil, natural gas and petroleum products; Deposition; Devices; Dynamical systems; Dynamics; Economics; Energy; Exact sciences and technology; Fuels; Inhibitors; Nigerian crude oils; paraffin deposition; paraffin inhibition efficiency; Paraffins; Petroleum products, gas and fuels. Motor fuels, lubricants and asphalts; pipeline transport system; Processing of crude oil and oils from shales and tar sands. Processes. Equipment. Refinery and treatment units; wax inhibitors
• ISSN: 1091-6466; 1532-2459
• DOI: 10.1081/LFT-200044504

Paraffin deposition in oil production constitutes a critical and difficult to control problem, in terms of productivity and production operation costs, going from the reservoir to surface facilities. In Nigeria, operators spend millions of dollars each year to control the deposition of paraffin and to deal with other paraffin deposition related problems. Expenditures of this magnitude obviously have a significant impact on profits. The main purpose of this work is to assess the net effect of many commercial wax inhibitors on paraffin deposition from a wide range of waxy crude oil systems in Nigeria for the selection of an efficient additive. Deposition from a wide range of waxy crude oil systems from Nigerian oilfields were examined with and without chemical wax deposition inhibitors. The devices used to produce the deposits investigated were cold spot and dynamic flow wax deposition apparatus capable of producing field-like deposits with relatively small volumes of oil in minutes. Results show that most of the commercial wax inhibitors tested could decrease the deposition of wax, but none has the economical capability to solve the paraffin deposition problem for an extended period of time. One intriguing result was that the addition of xylene improved the performance of three wax inhibitors tested. It was also observed that there are subtle differences in inhibitor performance depending on deposition tendencies of crude oil.