Use of inhibitors for scale control in brine-producing gas and oil wells

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6974558

Tomson, M B; Rogers, L A; Varughese, K; Prestwich, S M; Waggett, G G; Salimi, M H

Field and laboratory work sponsored by the Gas Research Institute (GRI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) have shown that calcium-carbonate scale formation in waters produced with natural gas and oil can be prevented by injection of phosphonate inhibitor into the formation, even if the formation is sandstone without calcite binding material. Inhibitor squeeze jobs have been carried out on DOE's geopressured-geothermal Gladys MaCall brine-gas well and GRI's co-production wells in the Hitchcock field. Following the inhibitor squeeze on Gladys McCall, the well produced over five million barrels of water at a rate of approximately 30,000 BPD without calcium-carbonate scaling. Before the inhibitor squeeze, the well could not be produced above 15,000 BPD without significant scale formation. In the GRI brine-gas co-production field tests, inhibitor squeezes have been used to successfully prevent scaling. Laboratory work has been conducted to determine what types of oil field waters are subject to scaling. This research has led to the development of a saturation index and accompanying nomographs which allow prediction of when scale will develop into a problem in brine production. Core samples from both fields were used in laboratory studies and analytical methods to analyze inhibitors in brine at a low levels were extended. A complete history of field development and the laboratory backup experiments is included in this paper.

• Research Organization: Rice Univ.
• OSTI ID: 6974558
• Report Number(s): CONF-861080-
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
03 NATURAL GAS
030300 -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BRINES
CALCIUM
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBONATES
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CONTROL
COORDINATED RESEARCH PROGRAMS
CORROSION INHIBITORS
CORROSIVE EFFECTS
ELEMENTS
EXPERIMENT PLANNING
FIELD TESTS
FLUID INJECTION
FLUIDS
FORECASTING
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INTERSTITIAL WATER
METALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NATURAL GAS WELLS
OIL WELLS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOSPHONATES
PLANNING
PRECIPITATION
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESERVOIR FLUIDS
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SCALE CONTROL
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
TESTING
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
WATER
WELLS