On 30th July 2020, Amin Adolfo Claib Meinhardt took to the digital stage at the 2020 SPE Virtual Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference to present a jointly authored technical paper on the impact of surveillance systems for dehydration and desalting process optimization by chemical mitigation. The paper focused on an integrated marine terminal project for PEMEX in Mexico, which brought together a multidisciplinary team of experts from Sensia and Schlumberger to deliver a seamless solution using Avocet from Sensia and OLGA Online from Schlumberger by focusing on optimization of product use and mitigating waste. You can read a short abstract below. To download and read the paper in its entirety simply head over to OnePetro. Abstract: Surveillance System for Dehydration and Desalting Process Optimization by Chemical Mitigation for a Marine Terminal in Mexico Oil quality management is an ongoing challenge – with costly financial implications when the product quality falls below the required trading specifications. Furthermore, it has been reported that upsets in the dehydration and desalting (D&D) process, leading to off-specification oil quality, are commonly experienced following well interventions (stimulations and cleanouts), particularly when dealing with heavy oil. Detailed research of problems at one D&D facility was conducted, starting with the analysis of existing field data and recommending and processing laboratory tests. A chemical mitigation strategy was developed with the implementation of key performance indicators (KPIs) and workflows in a production operations software platform. This includes a surveillance and smart alert system that displays KPIs on dashboards for chemical management, mapping for forecasting scenarios of well jobs, time to arrive to the D&D facility, and chemical injection forecasting. The production operations platform gathers input data and generates dashboards that include data from SCADA and dynamic multiphase flow simulation online systems to assess the network locations for all jobs and the lapsed time to arrive at the D&D process, making back allocations to gathering stations. About 30% of stimulation and cleanout jobs have affected the D&D process due to increased volume of suspended solids in the system; these act as natural emulsifiers at the water-oil interface, contributing to emulsion stabilization. When the emulsion is highly stable, the applied chemical treatment becomes ineffective downstream; the D&D process is therefore unable to effectively remove water and salt from oil. The irregularity of the demulsifier injection also adversely affects the efficiency of the process. The integrated production operations platform and multiphase flow simulator online system enabled real-time chemical mitigation monitoring and optimization through better data usage and interpretation. This enabled the operator to perform timely monitoring and proactively take actions to reduce the impacts on heavy oil quality. Copyright 2020, Society of Petroleum Engineers Download and read the full paper at OnePetro >
