Pipeline transportation of high pour point New Zealand crude using pour point depressants

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

OSTI ID:7247054

Slater, G; Davis, A

The Petroleum Corporation of New Zealand Limited discovered New Zealand's first major oil field in 1980. Production is currently 1590 m/sup 3//d (10,000 bpd), which represents about 14% of the country's requirements. The crude has a high pour point (32/sup 0/C) and a high wax level (35%). A major factor in development of the field was the selection of appropriate technology to overcome transportation problems via a 40 km pipeline from the process plant to port storage with ground temperatures of 11/sup 0/C (52/sup 0/F). Technical and economic considerations resulted in the selection of a chemical pour point depressant rather than thermal cracking, dilution with condensate, or maintaining the crude oil temperature above its pour point. Selection of a suitable pour point depressant was made using laboratory studies done by various prospective suppliers. Product performance was based on pour point and yield value for the crude using a simple simulation of pipeline cooling. The paper discusses how the adoption of pour point depressant technology, in conjunction with pipeline design, has resulted in an essentially trouble-free system which enables the crude to be successfully transported by pipeline.

• Research Organization: Petroleum Corp. of New Zealand Ltd.
• OSTI ID: 7247054
• Report Number(s): CONF-861080-
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
022000* -- Petroleum-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
AUSTRALASIA
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DESIGN
DILUTION
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SOURCES
FAILURES
FORECASTING
FOSSIL FUELS
FRACTURES
FUELS
INDUSTRY
LOW TEMPERATURE
NEW ZEALAND
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PIPELINES
POUR POINT
PRODUCTION
SIMULATION
START-UP
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
THERMAL FRACTURES
TRANSPORT