Production Chemistry
- Wax and Asphaltene Management

The selection of chemicals to prevent or inhibit wax and asphaltene deposition is often challenging. Chemical suppliers generally recommend likely candidate chemicals based on generic produced fluids descriptions. However, actual produced fluids will have to be provided to chemical suppliers so that better chemicals can be recommended. Even then, it is likely that field experience will be required to reliably determine what chemicals work and at which injection rates they will be required.

Chemical inhibition issues strongly influence flow system design, chemical inhibition design, and system operating philosophies/strategies and procedures. For instance, the technical issues and the costs and benefits of chemical inhibition, wellbore and flowline insulation, and pigging for deposition control all have to be considered together to arrive at an overall design solution.

Where economic to do so, the most reliable design/operating technique may be to use system insulation (to retain heat, to reduce the radial temperature gradient, and to reduce the temperature difference between fluid and pipe wall) and regular pigging to limit the amount of wax that does accumulate. This is especially true if insulation is needed for other reasons (e.g., hydrate control). Nonetheless, it is often prudent to include injection capability in the system design so that chemicals can be injected if found to be necessary.

INTECSEA has worked with several clients on the flow of high wax content crudes, which have high viscosities and high pour points.  Design considerations have included the determination of gelled fluid properties, gelled fluid restart, and chemical additives such pour point depressants and diluents.

In addition, INTECSEA has experience in coordinating fluid testing programs and performing quality control in laboratory measurements in the following areas: PVT properties; hydrate formation and dissociation conditions; phase envelope and hydrate kinetics in natural gas, gas condensate and black oil systems; the effect on hydrate inhibition of mixed inhibitors, salts, glycols and MeOH/EtOH; oil viscosities; wax properties (pour point, cloud point/WAT, wax amount, gel behaviour and inhibitor effects) using various testing methods; and modelling wax deposition rate and thickness.

•  Systems Engineering
  • Systems Integration
  • Integrity and Risk Management
•  Flow Assurance and Operability
  • Complete System Designs
  • Thermal-Hydraulic Simulations
  • Hydrate Prediction, Inhibition,
    and Remediation
  • Production Chemistry –
    Wax and Asphaltene Management
  • Production Chemistry – Scale Management
  • Slug Prediction and Slug Catcher Sizing
  • Production/Flow System Operability
  • Production System Design
  • Flow Assurance and Operability
    Design Stages
  • Analysis Tools
•  Subsea Engineering
  • Overall Field Development Planning
  • Conceptual Design
  • Subsea Structural Design
  • FEED
  • Detailed Engineering / Design / Analysis
  • Fabrication / Manufacturing Services
  • Installation Support
  • Project Conclusion
•  Subsea Active Production Technologies
•  Offshore Wind
•  Interface Management
  • Workflows and Processes
  • Interface Management Capability
  • Interface Management Tool
•  Construction Management
  • Design Support
  • Construction Planning
•  Project Management
  • WPMP
  • EMS
•  Materials Engineering
  • Materials Selection
  • Corrosion Management
  • Welding Engineering
  • Non-Destructive Testing

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