TULSA UNIVERSITY PARAFFIN DEPOSITION PROJECTS

Abstract

oil and gas production moves to deeper and colder water, subsea multiphase production systems become critical for economic feasibility. It will also become increasingly imperative to adequately identify the conditions for paraffin precipitation and predict paraffin deposition rates to optimize the design and operation of these multiphase production systems. Although several oil companies have paraffin deposition predictive capabilities for single-phase oil flow, these predictive capabilities are not suitable for the multiphase flow conditions encountered in most flowlines and wellbores. For deepwater applications in the Gulf of Mexico, it is likely that multiphase production streams consisting of crude oil, produced water and gas will be transported in a single multiphase pipeline to minimize capital cost and complexity at the mudline. Existing single-phase (crude oil) paraffin deposition predictive tools are clearly inadequate to accurately design these pipelines because they do not account for the second and third phases, namely, produced water and gas. The objective of this program is to utilize the current test facilities at The University of Tulsa, as well as member company expertise, to accomplish the following: enhance our understanding of paraffin deposition in single and two-phase (gas-oil) flows; conduct focused experiments to better understand various aspects ofmore » deposition physics; and, utilize knowledge gained from experimental modeling studies to enhance the computer programs developed in the previous JIP for predicting paraffin deposition in single and two-phase flow environments. These refined computer models will then be tested against field data from member company pipelines. The following deliverables are scheduled during the first three projects of the program: (1) Single-Phase Studies, with three different black oils, which will yield an enhanced computer code for predicting paraffin deposition in deepwater and surface pipelines. (2) Two-Phase Studies, with a focus on heat transfer and paraffin deposition at various pipe inclinations, which will be used to enhance the paraffin deposition code for gas-liquid flow in pipes. (3) Deposition Physics and Water Impact Studies, which will address the aging process, improve our ability to characterize paraffin deposits and enhance our understanding of the role water plays in paraffin deposition in deepwater pipelines. As in the previous two studies, knowledge gained in this suite of studies will be integrated into a state-of-the-art three-phase paraffin deposition computer program.« le