Abstract
Gas wells, coal seam methane wells, glycol dehydrators, gas
plants and gas storage wells can all experience paraffin
problems that affect the cost to produce and handle gas.
Problems with paraffin have been encountered from the
formation through the gas plants to the storage wells. This
paper will explain what paraffin is, why the problems occur
and what type of treatments have effectively treated gas
system problems. Case histories of various types of successful
and unsuccessful treatments will be presented.
Introduction
Gas wells and coal seam methane wells may produce high
gravity crude oil (> 40 API) or condensate (> 50 API) with
the gas. Some wells may produce no liquids to surface but
will still be producing oil or condensate into the well bore.
The paraffin or n-alkane components account for a significant
portion of a majority of these oils and condensates. These
paraffins have a straight chain linear structure composed
entirely of carbon and hydrogen. The melting points vary
from -295F for methane gas (CH4) to >240F for Hectane
(C100H202) and above.1 See Table 1. It is not known what the
longest naturally occurring n-alkane in crude oil or condensate
is, the longest observed by this author was a C103H208. The
paraffins >C20H42 are the ones that can cause deposition or
congealing in gas systems.2 These paraffins >C20H42 can
deposit anywhere from the fractures in the formation rock to
the gas storage wells.3 The deposits can vary in consistency
from rock hard for the longest chain length paraffin to very
soft, mayonnaise like congealing oil deposits caused by
shorter chain paraffin. Crude oils and condensates have
congealing points from < -90 F to >130F.
Paraffin can cause a great many types of problems including
deposition from in the formation to the gas plant, congealing
oil, interface problems, tank bottoms, stabilized emulsions,
high line pressures, plugged flow lines, paraffin coated solids,
SPE 84827
Geothermal Gradient
The condensate or oil produced into the well bore will
stabilize at the bottomhole temperature and pressure and will
flow up the tubing to the surface. The natural cooling of the
liquid as it is carried to the surface may allow it to reach its
cloud point. If the equipment surfaces cool to the oils cloud
point deposition of paraffin will occur. The location may vary
from the formation to the pipeline or anywhere in between.
Oil Volume
The more gas, oil or condensate that an oil well makes, the
more paraffin is being carried through the system. It never
sounds like very much when you say the oil contains 2%
paraffin by volume until you realize that this is 2 barrels out of
every 100 barrels of condensate production. The more
condensate a well makes the faster the deposition will be and
the more frequent the problems. The higher the volume of
fluid produced, the warmer the condensate will reach the
surface. This will reduce downhole problems, but may not
eliminate them.
Cold Fluids
In many operations in the oilfield we have to pump large
volumes of fluid into the tubing or annulus. Reasons that we
may do this include; killing a well to work on it, acidizing or
fracturing the well. If the volume of fluid is larger than the
shut in fluid level some of the fluid will go into the formation.
If the fluid is pumped at >5 bbl per minute the fluid will reach
the formation at near its surface temperature. If a 70F fluid is
pumped from a truck on the surface at 5 barrels per minute it
will reach 5000 feet down a well and only be 75F. If pumped
at 50 bbl per minute it will still be 70F when it reaches the
formation. The situation gets much worse if it is January in
Oklahoma and the fluid is only 20F in the truck. If the flow
paths in a formation are cooled to 20F and the cloud point of
the reservoir fluids is 90 paraffin deposition will occur as the
produced fluid are being produced and warmed up the near
wellbore area. The melting point of the paraffin can be high
enough to permanently damage the formation.
Types of Problems and Treatments
Many different types of paraffin problems have been
experienced in gas wells. The following are examples of
problems that are possible depending upon the condensate and
system conditions being experienced. A certain problem may
occur in one system but with a different condensate in an
identical system it may not occur.
High Melting Paraffin Formation Deposition
At high pressure and temperature in deeper reservoirs,
reservoir fluids contain all the gas, gas liquids and other
components including the high melting paraffins. As the
hydrocarbon mixture flows into the near wellbore and through
the perforations pressure drops occur that cause cooling of the
formation. If the pressure drop is large enough the formation
rock temperature may be reduced below the cloud point of the
hydrocarbon mixture and long chain, high melting paraffin
may deposit. This paraffin can plug the flow paths in the
formation. If the paraffin deposited has a higher melting point
than the formation temperature permanent plugging may
occur. This deposition can reduce production of gas and
liquids very rapidly and may be misidentified as
natural decline.
SPE 84827
SPE 84827
SPE 84827
5.
6.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
ALKANES IN CRUDE PETROLEUM
SOME
N-
Compound
Formula
Melting Point F
Methane
Ethane
Propane
Butane
Pentane
Hexane
Heptane
Octane
Nonane
Decane
Undecane
Pentadecane
Eicosane
Triacontane
Tetracontane
Pentacontane
Hexacontane
Heptacontane
Hectane
CH4
C2H6
C3H8
C4H10
C5H12
C6H14
C7H16
C8H18
C9H20
C10H22
C11H24
C15H32
C20H42
C30H62
C40H82
C50H102
C60H122
C70H142
C100H202
-296
-297
-305
-217
-201
-137
-131
-70
-65
-21.5
-14
50
97.5
150
178
198
210
221
239
-127
-44
31
96.8
156
209
258
303
345
385
519
NA
579
NA
790
NA
NA
NA
Table 1
50
100
150
-1000
In-Situ
Depth (ft.)
-2000
Production
-3000
Cloud Point
-4000
-5000
Graph 1
259