Table of Contents
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
Headquartered in Midland, Michigan, U.S.A., Dow Corning has more than 45 sites worldwide as well as
over 10,000 employees around the globe.
Combining client services and innovation, Dow Corning is also committed to the principles of sustainability.
The company views sustainability as fundamental to its future success in meeting the needs of customers,
employees and local communities. It has made sustainability a corporate value and is implementing
an approach that covers all three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and
environmental. The company has long participated in the Responsible Care® program, an international
initiative to advance the safe and secure management of chemical products and processes. Dow Corning
uses Responsible Care as a framework for activities including product development, manufacturing,
transportation, usage and waste disposal.
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Dow Corning Corporation
• Oil/water demulsification
• Oil well sealing for repair, abandonment and
zonal isolation
• Hydrocarbon foaming
• Sand consolidation
• Proppant modification and processing aids
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• Gas/oil separation foam control
• Delayed coking foam control
Dow Corning’s website, dowcorning.com/oilandgas, has several informative articles and selection
guides covering some of the more established uses for silicon-based technology in the industry, including:
Dow Corning can also offer supportive services and fully integrated solutions tailored to your specific
business needs.
The following sections give more details on some of the newer and emerging applications for silicon-
based technology in upstream oil and gas operations.
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
Overview
As high-quality crude oil resources become depleted
and heavy crude oil reserves are tapped, the need for
new, efficient and potent demulsifiers to resolve difficult
water-in-oil emulsions becomes more important.
The effectiveness of silicone demulsifiers has been demonstrated over the years in the field, both as
stand-alone additives and as performance boosters to organic-based formulations, in levels between 10
– 30 wt%, based on formulation active ingredients.
Key Advantages
• Rapid water drop rate
• Sharp interface definition
• Improved water quality
• Low-temperature performance
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Dow Corning Corporation
Case History
Dow Corning worked with a leading oil and gas company to improve their crude oil demulsification
process at their primary offshore platforms in Asia.
The traditional demulsification process involves the use of organic demulsifiers at temperatures of 60 to
70°C to reduce the water content in the oil stream to about 3-5 percent. These organic demulsifiers are
ineffective at lower temperatures. The firm was looking for a solution that would enable them to carry out
the same process at a lower temperature with higher water reduction.
Dow Corning worked with the company’s team on various field trials to screen the DM series. The com-
pany has decided to conduct further bulk trials with one of the DM series products, which enables cleaner
and faster separation of oil and water, and reduces the water content in treated crude up to less than 0.4
percent. In addition, it works effectively at a lower temperature of 40 to 50°C, thus enabling considerable
energy and cost savings to the company.
Oilfields conditions
• ~70 producing wells coming into 4 parallel separators
• Medium oil with some wax (controlled by pigging)
• Average water cut ~60%
• Residence time ~3 min
• Temp: 50 - 60°C
• Pressure: 7-8 kg/cm2
Treatment detail Final water content in oil Final oil content in slop water
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
Product Information
*HLB equivalent = (molecular weight of ethylene oxide/molecular weight of total polymer) x 20.
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Dow Corning Corporation
Overview
Cement is a common material used
in downhole sealing jobs, and while
cement is well established and
relatively inexpensive, there are
many cases where cement is either
unsuitable or has potential longer-term
problems. For example, cement can
crack or leave annular gaps upon
curing or during normal operations due
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Dow Corning and Shell Research developed a silicone elastomer system to help with these problems
several years ago. This work was initially described in SPE 39346 “Development of a Novel Silicone
Rubber/Cement Plugging Agent for Cost Effective Through Tubing Well Abandonment” by M. Bosma, et al.
This patented silicone elastomer system has many desirable characteristics. For example:
• Good thermal range – will remain flexible and stable from <0°C to >200°C
• Good chemical resistance
• Cure profile can be varied to give desired working time at job temperature by addition of a
catalyst or cure retarder – for example, to get 3 hours working time for the Dow Corning ® WS
4230 Well Sealant:
- At 30°C, no additives are needed to the base formulation
- at 50°C, you would add 2.5% Dow Corning ® WS 4232D Diluted Cure Retarder or 0.25%
Dow Corning ® WS 4233 Cure Retarder
- at 100°C you would add 6.5% Dow Corning WS 4233 Cure Retarder or 0.2%
Dow Corning ® WS 4234C Concentrated Cure Retarder
- at 135°C you would add 1.3% Dow Corning WS 4234C Concentrated Cure Retarder
• Swell slightly in oil, which can lead to an even better seal
• Cure is not significantly affected by contaminants (oils, muds, etc.), at least up to the 5-10% level
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
• Supplied as a liquid, two-part, cure-in-place system. The addition cure chemistry relies on no
outside materials (such as moisture) to initiate cure and doesn’t have any cure byproducts.
It is worth noting that strong acids (sulfuric, concentrated HCl, etc.) or bases (concentrated
KOH, etc.) can degrade the elastomer over time, particularly at higher temperatures. Also
at high temperatures, the elastomer is hydrolytically unstable and can degrade over time.
Since this latter case is quite common downhole, additional work was done to understand this
phenomenon.
Since degradation requires contact with destabilizing material, the rate should be diffusion controlled. A
multiyear study was undertaken to determine the diffusion coefficients and then to validate the theory with
application simulation results. The following chart illustrates the expected degradation rate based on the
diffusion coefficients. Experimental results from the exposure study match up well.
Diffusion-controlled depolymerization
5
4.5
4
3.5
Failure, meters
3 25°C
2.5 100°C
2 200°C
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time, years
Example 2 below illustrates how this can apply in practice to a P&A application.
Example 1 below illustrates a typical operation for secondary/remedial sealing using Dow Corning ® WS
4235UF Unfilled Well Sealant. This is an application where cement has a low success rate due to the
difficulty of squeezing a solids-containing slurry. Note that this operation could also be performed with a
top-down squeeze.
Field trials to date have been a combination of these two examples, most for annular gas to the surface in
previously abandoned wells. All re-abandonments with this system were successful on the first try. More
details on these trials are available.
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Dow Corning Corporation
Example Applications
Example 1: Damaged Casing and Annular Seal (Squeeze Cementing/ Sealing)
A. Damaged casing
B. Through tubing squeeze of Dow Corning ® WS 4235UF Unfilled Well Sealant
C. Circulate or drill out to resume production
A. Well plugged with 5m of Dow Corning WS 4230 Well Sealant (red) + cement (gray).
Conditions are 100°C, primarily brine with residual oil left in contact with the silicone seal
B. After 10 years, the brine has penetrated about 0.75m into the seal
C. After 20 years, the brine has penetrated just over 1 m into the seal, still leaving almost
4 meters of Dow Corning WS 4230 Well Sealant to act as a positive seal to prevent
fluids migration, even if the cement has cracked or otherwise failed
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
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Dow Corning Corporation
Overview
There are multiple applications
in the oil and gas industries
that involve the need to
generate hydrocarbon-based
foam, such as oil-based fluids
for underbalanced foam drilling
and gas well deliquification.
Key Advantages
The key advantages of silicone-based foaming agents:
Product Information
Dow Corning ® 1250 Surfactant is known in patent literature to be an effective foaming agent in oil-based
drilling fluids
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
Overview
Hydraulic fracturing is a technique
used in gas and oil wells to increase
the permeability of zones to enhance
production. It is a standard practice
used today as wells get older and
permeability decreases or new wells
are being drilled in less permeable
formations. The process includes
creating a fracture, or fissure, in low
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permeable zones, filling the fracture
with proppants that pack and hold the fractures open, all yielding an enhanced permeable pathway to the
wellbore for the oil or gas.
In recent years, resin-coated proppants have seen an increase in usage because they have demonstrated
a higher crush resistance and demonstrated less fines migration, which leads to improved conductivity. As
new proppants develop, resin-coated proppants continue to evolve and become more specialized to
specific wells and the geological conditions downhole. The resin technology is also being engineered to
meet the needs of deeper wells, which translate to higher pressures and temperature environmental
conditions that the proppant must be able to withstand.
Dow Corning provides silicon-based technology that can enhance the performance of the resin technology
used in proppants with targeted benefits in adhesion of the resin and compressive strength enhancement,
as well as processing aids to improve flow and anticaking performance. We supply a wide range of
products with different functionalities to address the needs of our customers.
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Dow Corning Corporation
When hydrocarbons are recovered from subterranean formations, which are comprised of poorly consolidated
or unconsolidated sandstones, free sand and very small particles called “fines” can be carried away with
the hydrocarbons and transported to the surface. This often results in negative effects such as plugging of
the formation’s pores and/or erosion of the equipment. These adverse effects on well productivity and
equipment are costly sources of well damage that are often sought to be mitigated.
Different methods have been developed for preventing or addressing the effects linked to the migration of
fines and the related formation damage, including sand/gravel packing, screens, slotted liners, maximum
sand-free production rate, sand consolidation and various combinations of these methods.
Sand consolidation is a process involving the injection of a reactive chemical into a naturally unconsolidated
formation. The chemical’s purpose is to bind the sand particles that make up the formation matrix while
maintaining sufficient permeability to achieve viable production rates.
Various sets of chemistry have been investigated for sand consolidation, among them organosilanes,
which have demonstrated beneficial effects such as increased compression strength of the formation.
This class of materials can be simply flushed into a formation and due to their ability to rapidly hydrolyze
once in contact with aqueous solutions, organosilanes can easily form in-situ silanol species that will
condensate with each other and with any other hydroxyl sites on the surface of the mineral particles. This
results in a Si-O-Si network that will bind the siliceous material to the formation. Organosilane materials
also have been demonstrated to enhance the adhesion and compression performance of organic resins
used for consolidating sand formations.
In addition, their low bioaccumulation and high biodegradability profile make these chemicals
environmentally acceptable.
Dow Corning provides silicon-based technology that can chemically bind with the particles and provide
and enhance performance. We supply a wide range of organosilanes with different functionalities to
address the needs of our customers.
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
Product Information
Dow Corning ® amino / methoxy 0.946 1.06 Novolac and Resol Phenolic
PP-20 Systems**, Furan, Urea
Formaldehyde, Epoxy
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Dow Corning Corporation
AV12204
Foam is a Problem
From the well head, through refining, processing and even during shipment of the finished product, foam
can cause major problems in the production and refining of oil. Foam robs you of capacity and makes
your production process less efficient. It causes cavitation in pumps and excessive process fouling.
Waste, maintenance costs and processing time go up, while productivity goes down.
Dow Corning has been involved in foam control for the petroleum industry for more than 50 years and has
a wide range of foam control products available for almost every foaming need. Dow Corning’s website,
dowcorning.com, has several informative articles and selection guides covering some of the more
established uses for silicon-based technology in the industry, including:
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
Gas-Oil Separation – Certain crudes tend to foam while undergoing depressurization to release
entrapped gas. This tendency can severely limit output and is especially severe on offshore rigs where
vessel size is limited and special foaming problems can occur. Using as little as 1 to 5 parts per million
silicone antifoam from Dow Corning can help you maintain maximum separator capacity and well output.
There are many different options of Dow Corning ® brand silicone antifoams that can be used in gas/oil
separators. Most of these neat antifoams are of quite high viscosity and can be supplied as a concentrate
for ease of handling. We can customize a blend of selected silicone-based fluids and solvents to meet
your needs, exactly. Save costs and time by choosing the right blend.
The antifoam is typically metered into the crude oil inlet line either upstream (preferred) or immediately
downstream of the choke valve. Continuous addition at low levels is typically the most effective from both
performance and cost standpoints. Whether it’s for typical foam problems in low/medium GOR environments
or a more persistent foaming problem often seen in high GOR or heavy oil situations, the Dow Corning
range of silicone antifoams has proven effective in solving foaming problems.
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Dow Corning Corporation
Gas Scrubbing – Gas scrubbers used to remove CO2 and H2S from gases are prone to foam. Such
processes are commonly used for natural gas, refinery gas, in gas treatment as a part of reforming, in
ethylene production (steam cracking) and in the production of ethylene oxide. Trace impurities, such as
liquid hydrocarbons, well-head inhibitors, corrosion solids and valve greases in the incoming gas can
cause foam regardless of which absorbent (MDEA, DEA, TEA and DGA or carbonate solution) is used.
Foaming can cause poor separation efficiency and reduced throughput, as well as loss of expensive
absorbent by carry-over. The foam can be controlled by feeding Dow Corning silicone antifoam into the
absorber/contactor and regenerator columns.
The antifoam is typically metered into either the column reflux line (after any filters) or into the column
feed line. It is generally preferred to add the antifoam into a reflux stream immediately before a pump to
maximize mixing and dispersion in the system, as shown in the below system diagram. Since some of the
defoamer is removed by the filters, it is usually added to both columns.
OUTLET
SCRUBBER REFLUX
ACCUMULATOR
Antifoam
REFLUX
CONDENSER
CONTACTOR
AMINE BOOSTER
CHARGE COOLER PUMP REFLUX
PUMP PUMP
Antifoam
FLASH
GAS REGENERATOR
CHARCOAL
SOUR FILTER
GAS
FLASH TANK
OR SKIMMER
RECLAIMER
INLET
SCRUBBER REBOILER
DRAIN
SOLIDS
FILTER
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Oil & Gas Industry Solutions
Delayed Coking – Foam typically occurs during the process of coking heavy oil and asphalt fractions.
This foam builds up in the coke drums, preventing the full use of the drum volume since the last thing you
want to do is carry foam or liquids overhead. The addition of 10 ppm or less of a silicone antifoam directly
to the drum generally controls the foam, thereby increasing the drum runs and reducing coke deposits in
overhead vapor lines and downstream equipment.
Since the most effective silicones are high-viscosity fluids, and since dose rates are so low, they are usually
dispersed in a hydrocarbon fluid before use. Dow Corning can provide a concentrate that can be further
diluted on site to the desired feed composition using coker naphtha or other available hydrocarbon stream.
The paper Foam Control Methods in Delayed Cokers on dowcorning.com/oilandgas has more
information.
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How to Contact Us
Dow Corning has sales offices, manufacturing sites, as well as science and technology laboratories around the globe.
Telephone numbers of locations near you are available at dowcorning.com/oilandgas.