An Evaluation of the Performance of Selected Wax Inhibitors on Paraffin Deposition of Nigerian Crude Oils

Paraffin deposition in oil production constitutes a critical and difficult to control problem, in terms of productivity and production operation costs, going from the reservoir to surface facilities. In Nigeria, operators spend millions of dollars each year to control the deposition of paraffin and to deal with other paraffin deposition related problems. Expenditures of this magnitude obviously have a significant impact on profits. The main purpose of this work is to assess the net effect of many commercial wax inhibitors on paraffin deposition from a wide range of waxy crude oil systems in Nigeria for the selection of an efficient additive. Deposition from a wide range of waxy crude oil systems from Nigerian oilfields were examined with and without chemical wax deposition inhibitors. The devices used to produce the deposits investigated were cold spot and dynamic flow wax deposition apparatus capable of producing field-like deposits with relatively small volumes of oil in minutes. Results show t...