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Paraffin problems?

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Jriad

Petroleum
May 18, 2006
16
We have a well that we believe is capable of better production than is currently evident. Is is highly possible that wax buildup would happen around the perfs (1800m) and not be evident at surface. Anyone know of any good references to assess this possible problem?

Thanks,

JR
 
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dont have a reference but:

Whats is you WAT and what is the temperature of the well fluid?

Best regards

Morten
 
Your best bet is to take a bottomhole sample and get a SARA (Saturates, Aromatics, Resins and Asphaltenes - analysis done on it. You could do a search on which laboratories perform this test. The results will tell you if wax or asphaltenes are the reason of the obstruction. They could also run a WAT (Wax Appearance Temperature) using produced oil.
 
I forgot company name and equipmet name which can prevent paraffin deposit by using magnetic wave. It is like a pipe spool and you need to install it along tubing at depth where cloud point introduces due to temperature drop.
 
swemin

I know of a couple of companies that used an adaptation of MHD to control wax. One is Magnaflow and it was run by Chuck Selinger out of Odessa, TX and the other Mag-well run by Mark Varel in Dallas, TX.

I don't know if they are still operating but we had some limited success with their equipment although I understand that the technology has very limited or no affect on asphaltenes.
 
This months Ofshore magazine had an article about the clearing of parafin from a crude export line in the Black Sea.
Perhaps this company has solutions that will apply:
Brenntag Oil & Gas.
But perhaps not since it was a combination of a chemical treatment and then special pigging .... but perhaps the method can be adpated to your problem.

JMW
 
With a Normal tempature gradient you shouldn't have a significant parrafin deposition problem at the sand face at that depth, I have found that in waxy wells that the parrafin buildup will be greater closer to surface. If for what ever reason your Formation is cooler than the parraffin cloud point you would deposit wax within your formation and the lower portion of your tubing. A wireline operation can be done to determine if ther is a buildup.
 
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