Our expert senior consultants can support your business with assessing the scale risk in your production system by working with you to review your field data, conduct scale prediction modelling and provide recommendations on strategies to mitigate and resolve potential risks.
Where scale inhibition via chemical deployment is desirable, we can propose appropriate test programs to determine the best chemistries for your system including best in class chemical qualifications. We provide scale formation, inhibition and dissolution studies for conventional and exotic scale species under field representative conditions. Quality results are produced and reported through our decades of experience, expertise and in our state of the art facilities.
Tests are supported by in-house analytical services to qualitatively and quantitatively characterise deposited solids. Following selection of the best performing chemicals, our laboratories offer extended services that can then ensure that the chemicals are suitable for the designed method of deployment. Effectiveness of squeeze treatments are assessed via core flood testing, downhole continuous injection application testing (DHCI), gas lift application testing and material compatibility testing.
Scale testing protocols have been established together with custom-designed equipment. This allows chemicals performance testing under field representative field application conditions, critical for today’s challenging production environments. This includes a variety of equipment that can test a range of conditions, from simple ambient pressure type test conditions (bottle type tests), up to higher temperatures and pressures, e.g. Ultra High Pressure High Temperature (UHPHT) up to 250°C & 19,000psi. Testing of varying shear; stagnant to high shear conditions, and at a range of flow volumes (millilitres to 10’s litres per minute).
Types of scales investigated include:
Scaling formation and inhibition as a consequence of:
Other:
Facilities:
Specialist high temperature visibility cells
Jet impingement
High pressure high temperature autoclaves
Large Flow Pilot Rig
Evaporative Halite testing
In dynamic halite tests the system needs to account for the presence of water in the gas phase and the water composition. This requires knowledge of the formation water composition, the reservoir and production conditions. Then scale prediction software can be used to identify the highest risk conditions and associated water vapour pressures and used to design an analogue synthetic brine and the injection rate for the brine and deionised water to mimic the field conditions of interest.
The test starts at under saturated conditions with respect to halite and then are slowly modified become oversaturated.
Such tests demonstrate a co-relation between the in situ SR and the observation of halite deposition. This approach can then be used to validate scale prediction calculations and be used to assess the effectiveness of inhibitor chemicals under the most field realistic conditions achievable in a laboratory experiment.