석유 유동관의 왁스집적거동 분석을 통한 유동안정성 확보 연구

Abstract

Solid deposits can be accumulated in different environment between petroleum reservoir and production system. Wax is one of the deposits which cause flow assurance problems in flowline, surface equipment and topside facilities. If oil temperature falls below the Wax Appearance Temperature (WAT), wax begins to be accumulated in the inner wall of the flowline. Wax deposits lead to decreasing oil production rate and interrupting oil transportation by reducing the cross-sectional area of the flowline. To predict the wax deposition, experimental and simulation studies are being conducted with fluid characteristics.

In this study, wax experiment has been performed by flow loop system to measure the fluid pressure and temperature which are the main influential factors of wax deposition. In addition, wax modeling has been conducted using the experimental results, experimental conditions, fluid composition and fluid properties. As a results, pressure and temperature are compared using the experimental and modeling results by adjusting the uncertainty of parameters in wax deposition model. Also, wax deposition behavior in field scale has been confirmed with tuning wax parameters by PIPESIM for the extension of the field applicability.