Öl- und Gasforschung

Abstrakt

Prevention against Deposits at the Bottom of Oil Stabilization Column.

Hassen Sellami M*, Benzaoui L and Mouhoubi I

Formation of salts composed mainly of NaCl and CaSO4 in the bottom of columns in oil production trains causes huge difficulties and obstacles to the sweet units running. Precipitation of salts in question is caused by the operating temperature of 145°C at the bottom of the column. This is the origin of the increased pressure drop due to plugging of the anti-vortex which causes compulsory stops to proceed to the cleaning operations; either by simple washing with fresh water to dissolve NaCl or by mechanical cleaning every week by opening the column in order to remove adherent scale deposits. To solve this problem, tests and experiments were held in order to select an own crude oil emulsion-breaker for Ourhoud field in southern east of Algeria, to result in decrease of crude salinity after electrostatic desalting as to have minimum scale deposits. Experimental study carried out in (Ourhoud) laboratory reveals that one commercial emulsion-breaker from five others is chosen because of its effectiveness; this is the (CECA-SY-25E). An anti-deposits (EC-6146-A) is further injected in production trains. After then, trains have recovered their normal walks without recording any pressure drop.