Abstract

In the U. S., there is a bill before the Senate that would establish emergency reserves of petroleum to sustain the country for at least 90 days. Storage of such reserves would be costly. If salt domes were leached to provide capacity for stoning petroleum for a 90-day requirement, each facility would be about 8 million dollars, pipelines another 5 million, and the cost of the oil unknown. The arrival of large tankers involves the construction of superports to accommodate them. The proposed Texas superport will include a tank farm that will cover 100 acres. The site of the proposed superport in Louisiana is in the middle of a large field of salt domes. The import situation is discussed and recommendations to alleviate the worsening situation are listed. (MCW) Document type: Report

Abstract

Results of two studies conducted as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Pipeline Corrosion Control Program are reported. These studies focused on evaluation of rotary-applied concrete materials for internal pipeline protection against the erosive and corrosive effects of flowing brine. The study also included evaluation of liners applied by hand on pipe pieces that cannot be lined by rotary methods. Such pipe pieces include tees, elbows and flanged pipe sections. Results are reported from a corrosion survey of 17 different liner formulations tested at the-Big-Rill SPR Site. Testing consisted of electrochemical corrosion rate measurements made on lined pipe sections exposed, in a test manifold, to flowing SPR generated fluids. Testing also involved cumulative immersion exposure where samples were exposed to static site-generated brine for increasing periods of time. Samples were returned to the laboratory for various diagnostic analyses. Results of this study showed that standard calcium silicate concrete (API RP10E) and a rotary calcium aluminate concrete formulation were excellent performers. Hand-lined pipe pieces did not provide as much corrosion protection. The focus of the second part of the study was on further evaluation of the calcium silicate, calcium aluminate and hand-applied liners in actual SPR equipment and service. It was a further objective to assess the practicality of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for field corrosion monitoring of concrete lined pipe compared to the more well-known linear polarization technique. This study showed that concrete linings reduced the corrosion rate for bare steel from 10 to 15 mils per year to 1 mil per year or less. Again, the hand-applied liners did not provide as much corrosion protection as the rotary-applied liners. The EIS technique was found to be robust for field corrosion measurements. Mechanistic and kinetic corrosion rate data were reliably obtained. Document type: Report

Abstract

In early October of 1993, an oil shipment of about 1 million barrels was made from the Bayou Choctaw Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage facility to St. James Terminal. During the shipment, oil temperatures and soil temperatures along the pipeline were recorded. The field data were used to make estimations of soil thermal properties, thermal conductivity and specific heat. These data were also used to validate and calibrate a heat transfer code, OILPIP, which has been used to calculate pipeline cooling of oil during a drawdown. Document type: Report

Abstract

This report examines four petroleum transport network models to determine whether parts of them can be incorporated into the transportation component of a national refinery model. Two questions in particular are addressed. (a) How do the models under examination represent the oil transport network, estimate link capacities, and calculate transport costs. (b) Are any of these network representations, capacity estimates, or cost functions suitable for inclusion in a linear programming model of oil refinery and primary distribution in the US. Only pipeline and waterway transport is discussed. The models examined are the Department of Energy's OILNET model, the Department of Transportation's Freight Energy Model, the Federal Energy Administration Petroleum Transportation Network Model, and an Oak Ridge National Laboratory oil pipeline energy model. Link capacity and cost functions are recommended for each transport mode. The coefficients of the recommended pipeline cost functions remain to be estimated. Document type: Report

Abstract

Chemical treatments of paraffin and asphaltene deposition by means of cleaning fluids were carried out in this research project. Research focused on the characterization of asphaltene and paraffin materials and dissolution of asphaltene and paraffin deposits using surfactant/micellar fluids developed early in the project. The key parameters controlling the dissolution rate were identified and the process of asphaltene/paraffin dissolution were examined using microscopic apparatus. Numerical modeling was also carried out to understand the dissolution of paraffin deposits. The results show that fused chemical reaction systems are a promising way of removing paraffin deposits in subsea pipelines. The fused system may be in the form of alternate pulses, emulsions systems or encapsulated catalyst systems. Fused reaction systems, in fact, are extremely cost-effective--less than 10% of the cost of replacing entire sections of the blocked pipeline. The results presented in this report can have a real impact on the petroleum industry and the National Oil Program, if it is realized that the remediation technologies developed here can substantially delay abandonment (due to asphaltene/paraffin plugging) of domestic petroleum resources. The report also sheds new light on the nature and properties of asphaltenes and paraffin deposits which will ultimately help the scientific and research community to develop effective methods in eliminating asphaltene/paraffin deposition problems. It must also be realized that asphaltene remediation technologies developed and presented in this report are a real alternative to aromatic cleaning fluids currently used by the petroleum industry. Document type: Report

Abstract

In the United States, more than 20 billion barrels of water are produced each year during oilfield operations. Today, the cost of water disposal is typically between $0.25 and $0.50 per bbl for pipeline transport and $1.50 per bbl for trucked water. Therefore, there is a tremendous economic incentive to reduce water production if that can be accomplished without significantly sacrificing hydrocarbon production. For each 1% reduction in water production, the cost-savings to the oil industry could be between $50,000,000 and $100,000,000 per year. Reduced water production would result directly in improved oil recovery (IOR) efficiency in addition to reduced oil-production costs. A substantial positive environmental impact could also be realized if significant reductions are achieved in the amount of water produced during oilfield operations. In an earlier project, we identified fractures (either naturally or artificially induced) as a major factor that causes excess water production and reduced oil recovery efficiency, especially during waterfloods and IOR projects. We also found fractures to be a channeling and water-production problem that has a high potential for successful treatment by gels and certain other chemical blocking agents. By analogy, these blocking materials also have a high potential for treating narrow channels behind pipe and small casing leaks. We also determined that the ability of blocking agents to reduce permeability to water much more than that to oil is critical to the success of these blocking treatments in production wells if zones are not isolated during placement of the blocking agents. Document type: Report

Abstract

The basic objectives of the study were to: characterize the pipeline industry and understand its energy consumption, i.e., the patterns of consumption and the quantities and intensities of that consumption in each of the five major pipeline industry segments: gas, oil, slurry, fresh water, and waste water; characterize and understand the influence of the Federal Government on the introduction of energy-conservative innovations into the pipeline industry; identify opportunities for energy conservation in the pipeline industry, and to recommend the necessary programs of research, development, and demonstration to exploit those opportunities; and assess the future potential of the pipeline industry for growth and for contribution to the national goal of energy conservation, including consideration of freight pipelines. Pipelines for crude oil, natural gas, petroleum products, water, coal slurries, and for the pneumatic transport of solids are considered. Information is included on: energy consumption for pipeline transport; energy efficient pumping equipment; methods for reducing drag in pipelines; government regulations related to pipelines; environmental aspects of pipeline transport; and the economic outlook and growth of the pipeline industry. (LCL) Document type: Report

Abstract

Preliminary testing has shown that Western Research Institute's (WRI) Tank Bottom Recovery and Remediation (TaBoRR{reg_sign}) technology shows promise for heavy oil upgrading. Approximately 70 to 75 wt% of a Canadian Cold Lake bitumen feed was converted to a partially upgraded overhead product that could be transported directly by pipeline or blended with the parent bitumen to produce transportable crude. TaBoRR{reg_sign} was originally developed to remediate tank bottom wastes by producing a distillate product and solid waste. TaBoRR{reg_sign}'s processing steps include breaking a water-oil emulsion, recovering a light hydrocarbon fraction by distillation in a stripper unit, and pyrolyzing the residua reducing it to additional overhead and a benign coke for disposal. Cold Lake bitumen was tested in WRI's bench-scale equipment to evaluate the potential use of TaBoRR{reg_sign} technology for heavy oil upgrading to produce a stable, partially (or fully) upgraded product that will allow diluent-reduced or diluent-free transportation of bitumen or ultra-heavy crudes to market. Runs were conducted at temperatures of low, intermediate and high severity in the stripper to produce stripper overhead and bottoms. The bottoms from each of these runs were processed further in a 6-inch screw pyrolyzer to produce pyrolyzer overhead for blending with the corresponding stripper overheads.more » Proceeding in this fashion yielded three partially upgraded crudes. The products from TaBoRR{reg_sign} processing, the parent bitumen, and bitumen blends were subjected to stability and compatibility testing at the National Centre for Upgrading Technology (NCUT). Chemical analyses of the overhead product blends have met pipeline specifications for viscosity and density; however the bromine number does not, which might indicate the need for mild hydrotreating. Storage stability tests showed the blends to be stable. The blends were also soluble and compatible with most other Alberta crudes.« le Document type: Report