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International Journal of Petroleum and Geoscience Engineering
IJPGE 2021, 15 pages - Article ID: IJPGE-2112282112413
Insulation Thickness: An Underlying Factor for Wax Precipitation and Deposition Reduction in Flowlines
a World Bank Africa Centre of Excellence, Centre for Oilfield Chemical Research, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
b Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
The study seeks to alleviate the formation of wax deposits with insulation thickness by tracking the point of wax appearance, wax deposit thickness and wax mass precipitation rate in flow line divided into 10 pipe segments of 2850ft each. Different production scenarios were created by varying the production rate (10000bbl/day, 12000 bbl/day, 14000 bbl/day, 16000 bbl/day, 18000 bbl/day and 20000 bbl/day) with insulation thickness (5mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm and 25mm) and the flowline size (12in, 14in and 16in). By using both experimental and synthetic field data, an OLGA model was constructed using the specified fluid samples previously characterized with the Multiflash simulator and simulation was run for period of 100days of production. Two fluid samples were compared and results showed that the waxier crude sample had more wax precipitation and deposition tendencies. At a production rate of 10000bbl/day with insulation thickness of 5mm and flowline size of 12in, the wax precipitation points/ wax deposit thickness of sample 1 and 2 were 2700ft/0.56mm and 2300ft/0.65mm respectively. Results reveal that higher production rates and insulation thickness delays the wax precipitation point (WPP) and reduces the wax deposit thickness (WDT) while wax mass precipitation rate did not show any uniform trend.