Performance Appraisals of Gas/Oil Separation Plants

Kokal, Sunil; Ghamdi, Abdullah

doi:10.2523/102854-ms

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Emulsions are natural byproducts of any steam injection production processes (Chung and Butler 1987). The severity of the emulsions is a critical part of the analysis, as it will affect the cost of petroleum processing Wingrove 2000, Kokal andGhamdi 2008).…”

Section: Emulsionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pore Scale Displacement Mechanism of Bitumen Extraction with High Molecular Weight Hydrocarbon Solvents

2016

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Solvent Aided-Steam Flooding (SA-SF) focuses on maximizing the oil production by reducing the economic and environmental challenges created by steam generation. However, the solvent selection is vital due to the interaction of solvents with asphaltenes. Moreover, the polar nature of asphaltenes also enables asphaltene-steam interaction which may result in emulsion formation. This study investigates solvent-asphaltene-steam interaction during SA-SF with low and high molecular weight asphaltene insoluble solvents.Two different solvents were tested; n-hexane (E1 and E4) and a commercial solvent (CS) (E2 and E5) with four flooding experiments; two miscible flooding (E1 and E2) and two SA-SF (E4 and E5) experiments. Results were compared with steam flooding (E3) experiment. The performance evaluation of different enhanced oil recovery methods was accomplished by comparing the oil recovery rates. The asphaltene content of produced oil samples was determined by standard methods. The asphaltene-steam interaction was analyzed with microscopic images, and the water content of produced oil samples was measured by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA).Even though similar cumulative oil productions were obtained by the end of E1 (n-hexane-flooding) and E2 (CS-flooding), the produced oil quality varied due to asphaltene and clay contents. While higher clay content was measured for E1, E2 had a lower quality, due to higher asphaltene contents. This finding is due to the heavy dearomatized hydrocarbons composition of the CS which ranges from C 11 up to C 16 and enables more asphaltene production. Even though, E5 yielded the highest liquid production among all experiments; the produced liquid was composed of emulsified oil. The solvent aided-steam flooding (SA-SF) experimental results, which have been conducted with n-hexane/steam (E4) and CS/steam (E5) injections, suggest that as the asphaltene content increases in produced oil samples, more hard-to-break emulsions are formed. The unusual stability of these emulsions can be attributed to the nature of the asphaltene present in the produced oil.From the results presented, it is recommended the use of lower carbon number solvents to leave the larger amounts of asphaltenes in the reservoirs. The solvents differed in their interactions with the asphaltenes present in the oil and with the steam that has a direct impact not only on the quantity of oil produced but the quality as well. Hence, the wise selection of the appropriate solvent cannot be ignored during solvent aided-steam flooding processes.

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Section: Emulsionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pore Scale Displacement Mechanism of Bitumen Extraction with High Molecular Weight Hydrocarbon Solvents

2016

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“…Earlier studies [5][6] have shown the importance of emulsion characteristics on the performance and optimization of oilwater separation at Saudi Aramco GOSPs. The present study was performed jointly by IFP and Saudi Aramco to carry out an in-depth analysis of the main physicochemical properties of emulsions, and the link to their behavior in the field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation of Emulsion Stability in GOSPs, Part II: Emulsion Behavior

Alghamdi

Noı̈k²,

Dalmazzone³

et al. 2007

All Days

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fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThis paper presents an experimental study performed jointly by IFP and Saudi Aramco to characterize the stability of emulsion samples collected from different Saudi Aramco Gas Oil Separation Plants (GOSPs). The first part of the study 1 (SPE 106128) focused on the analyses of separated phases. Many techniques (differential scanning calorimeter, Karl Fisher coulometer, rheology, optical microscopy, cryoscanning electron microscope) were applied to analyze and characterize the separated phases: crude oil, emulsion and free water. In the second part of this study, the stability of residual emulsions was investigated against several chemical demulsifiers by using classical bottle tests and an automated, vertical-scan, macroscopic analyzer (Turbiscan). This instrument is used to obtain kinetics of separation of concentrated and opaque dispersed systems such as emulsions, suspensions and foams. Interfacial tension measurements were also made to obtain information about the interfacial behavior of samples including viscoelasticity properties of the film. The results of transient emulsion separation experiments provide some useful insights into their behavior, stability and tightness. The study highlights the main physicochemical parameters responsible for the varying tightness of these emulsions, and provides recommendations to optimize their treatment costs and resolve emulsion issues in the GOSPs. Materials and Methods Emulsion Samples from GOSPsResidual emulsion samples separated after gravity separation (samples # 1, 4, 8 and 10) were selected to conduct complementary tests: bottle tests screening with chemical demulsifiers, rheological and solids content measurements, and interfacial tension measurements. RheologyRheological measurements on residual emulsions were performed using Haake Rheostress RS-150 technique equipped with a cone/plate geometry. All experiments were SPE 109888

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Performance Appraisals of Gas/Oil Separation Plants

Cited by 2 publications

References 5 publications

Pore Scale Displacement Mechanism of Bitumen Extraction with High Molecular Weight Hydrocarbon Solvents

Pore Scale Displacement Mechanism of Bitumen Extraction with High Molecular Weight Hydrocarbon Solvents

Experimental Investigation of Emulsion Stability in GOSPs, Part II: Emulsion Behavior

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