Summary
Scale prevention is important to ensure continuous production from existing
reserves that produce brine. Wells could be abandoned prematurely because of
poor management of scale and corrosion. The objective of this paper is to
present an overview of scale prediction and control and the current research at
Rice University to solve these problems. In this paper, the challenges of scale
prediction at high temperature, high pressure, and high total dissolved solids
(TDS) and an accurate model to predict pH, scale indices, density, and
inhibitor needs at these conditions are discussed and reviewed: specifically
discussed are (1) the various scale types found in oil and gas production and
the condition under which they form; (2) the relationship of pH, alkalinity,
organic acids, carbonates, and CO2 distribution; (3) the temperature
(T), pressure (P), TDS dependence of the thermodynamic
equilibrium constants and activity coefficients; and (4) the accuracy of the
Pitzer ion-interaction model-based scale-prediction algorithms and their
application. On the basis of a simple propagation of error estimation, the
overall estimated error for calcite saturation index (SI) is ± 0.1. This
algorithm has been validated with literature solubility data for six minerals
in the T, P, and TDS range of 0 to 200°C, 0 to 15,000 psia, and 0
to 350 000 mg/L TDS; for pH data at 25 and 60°C; and density of weighting
fluids with density between 8 and 12.7 lbm/gal.
© 2012. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
19 March 2010
- Meeting paper published:
8 June 2010
- Revised manuscript received:
26 March 2011
- Manuscript approved:
10 May 2011
- Published online:
8 February 2012
- Version of record:
11 June 2012
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