Pauziyah Abdul Hamid

Synthesis of Wax Inhibitor and Assessment of Squeeze Technique Application for Malaysian Waxy Crude

Highly paraffinic (or waxy) crude oil can cause significan t problems in the pipelines due to wax‐oil gel blockage resul ting from the precipitation of the wax components. Once blockage of the pipeline occurs and flow ceases, the pipeline flow ca nnot be restarted with the original steady state operating pr essure but instead requires significantly higher pressures to restart the flow. Due to this, it is important to maintain the oi l at a temperature above its natural pour point. The incorporation of chemical products known as wax inhibitors and pour point depressant (PPD) reduce the pour point and viscosity of oil. This paper introduces an indigenously synthesized wax inhibitor from the hydrophobically modified polybetaines (zwitterionic) family for treating waxy crude A located in Peninsular Malaysi a. The synthesized wax inhibitor had been evaluated as flow improver, crystal modifier and po ur point depressant. The wax inhibitor coded CRODDA-AA, works efficiently since it can reduce the pour point of waxy crude A by 12°C and the viscosity about half of the original value at 1000 ppm concen tration, as well as lowering the yield stress by 8 Pa at 51°C. In order to assess the use of the CRODDA-AA wax inhibitor for squeeze applications, a core flood study was conducted to determine its adsorption capability onto formation. A formatio n damage study was also conducted to ensure that there is no formation damage coupled with the injection of wax inhibito r. It was found that wax inhibitor CRODDA-AA can be retained in the formation up to 88.5% without significant formation damage . As a next step, it is planned to run the core flood and w ax inhibitor release tests to refine the design of squeeze t reatment.