Tuesday, 6 June 2017

Facts To Know About Paraffin Removal

By Mary Williams


In the oil extraction industry, paraffin wax build-up is a familiar issue. Paraffin wax has a lot of crippling effects on the oil well production. They cause a lot of oil to precipitate, which over time, reduces the oil flow. With time, oil production might stop completely. Oil is among one of the most important natural resources on earth. Thus paraffin removal is important whenever it occurs.

The process of mining oil is done by drilling the earth surface, creating wells. The wells are made in a manner that they are able to drain oil onto the surface. Natural gas can be brought to the surface together with oil. However, the wells for draining natural gas may be dug alone too. A lot of research is done in order to identify the proper location of the wells.

The work is done by geologists. The located place is selected to improve production of oil. Existence of hydrocarbon is also a factor considered when choosing a place for oil production. The injection point must be determined in advance too. Another important point is the permeability point. This allows for water or gas disposal. The end point of a well where oil or gas is disposed is known as a target.

Drilling work can start only after the location is identified. Required size determines the size of the well. Sections of steel that are smaller than oil wells a are inserted into the well during drilling. Safety measures are taken to ensure that workers and equipment are safe. One of the safety measures that is taken involves casting cement into the casing.

The cement provides structural integrity of a well. It also eliminates possibilities of dangerous high pressure zones. Paraffin wax is among the heavy organics of crude oil. It is actually a mixture of kerosene and asphaltenes. Kerosene deposits usually contains a lot of silt, gums, resins, salt crystals and sand. Due to all these the paraffin has to be constantly and continuously removed from the oil wells.

Removal of kerosene involves many different methods. When one is selecting the suitable method, they should consider safety first. Some of the methods like chemical solvents need one to use caustic reagents. This is because they are dangerous to people working on the oil sites. Sometimes they also damage the drilling equipment. In addition, all chemicals have toxins thus not healthy to human life.

Examples of other methods of wax removal include scraping method, coiled tubing, hot oiling, hot water, thermal method, chemical and wax solvents, and mechanical methods. Besides these methods, there are other methods too. Combining and using these methods together is sometimes done in some situations.

One is advised to keep in mind the nature of the wax build up before choosing any of these methods. This is because the wells that have same problems may have fouling wells. Therefore, it is vital to carry some research on the nature of a build-up and the extend it is. That helps to identify if there are other problems.




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