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Health, Safety, and Environmental Challenges of Xylene in

Upstream Petroleum Industry

Article  in  Energy & Environment · December 2012

DOI: 10.1260/0958-305X.23.8.1339

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HEALTH, SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES OF
XYLENE IN UPSTREAM PETROLEUM INDUSTRY

by

M. Zoveidavianpoor, A. Samsuri and S. Reza Shadizadeh,

(Malaysia and Iran)

Reprinted from

ENERGY &
ENVIRONMENT
VOLUME 23 No. 8 2012

MULTI-SCIENCE PUBLISHING CO. LTD.

5 Wates Way, Brentwood, Essex CM15 9TB, United Kingdom
 1339

HEALTH, SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

OF XYLENE IN UPSTREAM PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Mansoor Zoveidavianpoor1,*, Ariffin Samsuri2 and Seyed Reza Shadizadeh3
1
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Petroleum & Renewable Energy Engineering
2
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Petroleum & Renewable Energy Engineering
3
Petroleum University of Technology, Abadan Faculty of Petroleum Engineering
*Mansoor353@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
Xylene sited in the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s), is considered as one of
the toxic chemicals released to environment during oil and gas operations in order
to remove the organic deposits such as asphaltene. Normally, wellbore soaking by
xylene is performed to remove the organic plugs in the petroleum production
system. However, xylene imposed detrimental impacts and continuous threat to
field personnel and environment via storage and its flow backs into the waste pit.
This paper illustrates oil well stimulation process and equipment and reviews the
environmental challenges of xylene and gives indication of credible alternatives in
stimulation oil and gas wells. This way, awareness is provided for upstream
petroleum industry and environmental engineers for its risk evaluation,
development of remediation and/or replacement techniques, and finally
identification of future research directions.

Key Words: Xylene, Solvents, Environment, Stimulation, Oil wells

1. INTRODUCTION
The interaction between energy and environment has been recognized as a major
research topic in the scientific community [1, 2, and 3]. Upstream petroleum industry,
as a key part of world energy, involves a range of activities, including exploration,
drilling, and production of crude oil and/or natural gas. Reservoir stimulation is a
specialized area in upstream petroleum industry, which the main purpose is increase
ultimate economic recovery [4].
Solvents, defined as substances able to dissolve or solvate other substances, are
commonly used in manufacturing and laboratory processes and are often
indispensable for many applications such as cleaning, firefighting, pesticide delivery,
coatings, synthetic chemistry, and separations [5]. Billions of pounds of solvent wastes
are emitted to the environment annually, either as volatile emissions or with aqueous
discharge streams [6]. Commercial xylene is a mixture of the three isomeric; ortho (o-
), meta (m-) and para (p-), with m-xylene making up 45–70% of the total [7]. The
1340 Energy & Environment · Vol. 23, No. 8, 2012

structure, chemical and physical properties of the three isomers forms of xylene are
listed in Table 1. The composition of mixed xylenes varies, but the range of each
constituent is illustraed in Table 1. In this paper, xylene or xylenes, refers to mixed
xylenes, unless the individual isomer is specified.

Table 1. Physical and chemical properties of xylene isometric forms.

Health, safety, and environmental challenges of xylene in upstream petroleum industry 1341

The application of solvents in stimulation jobs are widely performed in oil industry.
Xylene, as an aromatic solvent, has been popular remedy for surface pipelines,
wellbore tubulars and especially near-well bore cleaning operations, because other
means of cleanup, such as heat, dispersants, pigging, scrapping, etc… cannot remove
the organic materials (asphaltene or paraffin) from near wellbore area. Even though
many brilliant papers presented on various environmental areas, overview papers that
present a context for those more specific studies are needed. This paper has presented
in an effort to be familiar and aware with environmental hazards to xylene in upstream
petroleum industry.
This paper has organized as follows: In order to be familiar with xylene usage in
stimulation operation, a brief description will be presented in section 2. This paper
tries to clear the topic, xylene in well stimulation, by presenting sketchy description of
the stimulation process and equipment. Actually, in order to understanding the issues
related with a production system in upstream petroleum industry, a surface layout in a
stimulation job is presented in this section too. Environmental impacts and alternative
methods will be covered in section 3 and 4 respectively.

2. XYLENE UTILIZATION IN OIL AND GAS WELLS

Squeezing remedial chemicals has been the standard action for restoring normal
conditions in the wells. Historically, xylene has been used to remove organic deposits;
however, xylene does not change the wettability of the rock surface, resulting in
treatment effectiveness that is often short-lived. Despite the fact that xylene utilization
was effective in short terms, Figure 1 is clearly shows that xylene is ineffective in long
term purposes.

Figure 1. The performance of xylene as a stimulation fluid [8].

1342 Energy & Environment · Vol. 23, No. 8, 2012

It is widely used as stimulation fluid in oil and gas wells. The amount of xylene
usage in one of the Middle Eastern oil and gas producers in one year reached to 9200
barrels [10]. Figure 2 shows an example of xylene usage for eleven wells in duration
of seven years in a reservoir located in south of Iran. Acidizing, is the main choice to
remediate the production in the majority of reservoir, but this treatment is ineffective
in removing organic deposits. Moreover, the presence of organic deposits in the
formation face may prevent the acid from the desired formation zone for acid
stimulation purposes. It is believed that acidizing jobs for cleanup or stimulation
purposes has resulted in the precipitation of organic deposits [11].

Figure 2. Xylene usage in eleven wells in duration of seven years [10].

One of the major drawbacks of solvents, such as xylene, is that they will usually
dissolve only 50% of a typical downhole sample. In addition, the deposits in the
wellbore are typically not only asphaltene and can comprise other organic or inorganic
deposits in addition to water [9]. This paper does not present detailed technical data
and discussion on acidizing failure because that topic is thoroughly covered elsewhere
[12].
Surface layout of well stimulation equipment in one of the oil well is shown in
Figure 3. Follow the procedure listed below: 1) Rig up well test equipments. 2)
Pressure test well test equipments. 3) Rig up Slick line. 4) Run 3 1/8” Gauge cutter
and wear sleeve with Slick line. 5) Rig up coiled tubing. 6) Wash the tubing with diesel
and xylene. 7) Flow the well for clean up. 8) Put the well in production. A summary
of the equipments function is listed in Table 2. Generally, the amount of water, diesel,
Health, safety, and environmental challenges of xylene in upstream petroleum industry 1343

and xylene utilized for well stimulation is 1000, 700, and 500 barrels, respectively.
Water is used as pressure test fluid and diesel/xylene mixture for stimulation and well
cleanup. There are over 50 oil wells, ~15 of which are asphaltenic wells that need well
stimulation operation in each two months and crewed by 20-24 people.

Figure 3. Surface layout of a stimulation job.

1344 Energy & Environment · Vol. 23, No. 8, 2012

Table 2. A summary of the well stimulation’s equipment function

3. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Flammability, toxicity, and biodegradability have made use of xylene less advantages.
Although xylene is considered to be the best solvent for organic deposit removal, its
use is sometimes restricted due to environmental concerns and stricter governmental
regulations [13]. These concerns have been related to a perceived need to steer away
from an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hit list of toxic chemicals. These
chemicals were targeted based on their combined toxicity, high emission/production
volumes, and strong potential for pollution-prevention techniques. Flash point is an
important parameter that has to take into consideration when using any solvent. The
National Fire Protection Association has assigned a flammability rating of 3. For
xylene isomeric mixtures, the flash point may be in the range of about 25-32°C (closed
cup) [13]. During the stimulation job, xylene is injected into a well to perform certain
functions such as dissolution and removal of organic deposits in wellbores and
producing formations. A portion of injected xylene returns to the surface with
produced water or hydrocarbons when the well flows back. Many of these are volatile,
and consequently, if the produced water is stored in open pits the chemicals will escape
into the atmosphere. Published exposure data of xylene in upstream petroleum
operations are limited. The exposure of the crude oil operators to the xylene in
Health, safety, and environmental challenges of xylene in upstream petroleum industry 1345

ordinary activities in 3 days was measured 0.03 ppm [14]. Table 3 illustrates the
xylene health effects in terms of short term and long term exposure. This table has
been constructed using data published in the literature [14, 15, 16, and 17].

Table 3. Long term and short term exposure to Xylene

Due to the flow back of xylene after a well stimulation job, and also the related
activities such as transportation, conservation, and blending prior to utilization,
protecting staff’s health is considered as a critical task for operation companies.
1346 Energy & Environment · Vol. 23, No. 8, 2012

Actually, very few works have studied the health effects of xylene in the oil and gas
exploration and production segment of the industry (i.e. ‘upstream’). Therefore,
sufficient knowledge of xylene environmental impacts must be provided. To be
familiar with this critical subject, a brief review on xylene related rules, regulations,
and recommendation is presented in this section.
To protect people from the potential harmful health effects of xylene, EPA regulates
xylene in the environment. The EPA estimates that, for an adult of average weight who
drinks two liters of water each day for a lifetime (70 years), exposure to seven ppm
(part per million) xylene in drinking water is unlikely to result in harmful
noncancerous health effects. Exposure to 40 ppm xylene in water for one or ten days
is unlikely to present a health risk to a small child. The EPA has set a legally
enforceable maximum level of ten ppm of xylene in water that is delivered to any user
of a public water system. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
regulates levels of xylene in the workplace. The maximum allowable amount of
xylene in workroom air during an eight-hour workday in a forty-hour workweek is one
hundred ppm [18]. OSHA has been installed to protect workers from solvent exposure.
Indeed, OSHA has implemented strict regulations, called permissible exposure limits
(PELs), for chemical concentrations to which one may be exposed without detrimental
health effects. The impact these regulations and methods have had on solvent use is
seen clearly in Figure 4 that consequently affected its usage (Figure 5) [5]. The
guidelines for this contaminant provide different values; for example the guideline
values in Sweden, New Jersey, Canada, Japan, North Carolina, California, and Illinois
are 0.02, 0.04, 0.3, 0.4, 0.53, 1.8, and 10 mg/L respectively.

Figure 4. Cumulative federal regulations [5].

Health, safety, and environmental challenges of xylene in upstream petroleum industry 1347

Figure 5. Solvent use sorted by solvent type [5].

Upstream petroleum workers exposure levels to Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and

xylene (BTEX), based on personal air monitoring data, are generally regarded as low
during regular activities [19]. Higher exposures may be encountered during maintenance
tasks (e.g. xylene injection for the means of wellbore cleaning and removing the organic
obstacle), but such exposure has not been routinely assessed and until now there is no
published exposure level to xylene in upstream petroleum workers. Figure 6 show that
the amount of xylene may be some 30 time the allowed limit [20].

Figure 6. BTEX in offices and small places [20].

1348 Energy & Environment · Vol. 23, No. 8, 2012

Table 4 shows that xylene has a considerable percentage in a petroleum blend. As

shown in a recent research, high xylene levels are emitted in petrol stations [21].
Zadeh et al. [22] demonstrated that the concentrations of BTEX are extremely high in
Tehran rainwater samples (mean concentrations of BTEX was between 87 and 188
?g/L). They concluded that contaminated rainwater can be the major source of
hydrocarbon pollution in Tehran soil and groundwater.

Table 4. Comparison of one blend of petroleum consumed in Iran [20]

4. ALTERNATIVE METHODS FOR XYLENE

A number of other solvents and formulations have also been used, including water-
soluble dispersants [24], and bio-based solvent blend [25]. Table 5 shows some other
efforts (patents) that tried to find an alternative toward removing organic materials
from oil and gas wells. This table has been constructed from the data provided by
reference [23]. Stricter regulations governing disposal, volatile emission limits, and
flammability/handling concerns have made the use of this aromatic solvent less
attractive. In an effort to limit environmental and exposure hazards, alternate solvents
have been investigated by several authors [13]. As stated by reference [26],
environmental impact of these chemicals was the most important reason to motivate
the operator companies to replace them and investigation began in the mid-1980s
toward looking at alternative solvents. In addition to applying heat, dispersants,
pigging, scrapping or other mechanical means, most operations consider xylene to be
the best among solvents for organic deposit removal. As a result, many methods for
solvent pollution prevention have been developed [27, 28, 29, 30, and 31]. Reference
Health, safety, and environmental challenges of xylene in upstream petroleum industry 1349

[32] introduced environmental friendly terpene-based solvents that containing much

improved health, safety, and environment (HSE) characteristics. Compared to
aromatic solvents, terpenes have good solvency and are biodegradable, less toxic and
less flammable. In another effort conducted by Lightford [9], a new emulsified solvent
system (ESS) achieved enhanced HSE characteristics, as well as excellent asphaltene-
solvency power.

Table 5. Alternative solutions for removal of organic deposits from oil

and gas wells

5. CONCLUSIONS
Xylene is widely used as stimulation fluid in oil and gas fields. Unfortunately, lack of
rules and regulation about xylene utilization in some countries, had a negative impacts
on technical and environmental issues. Continuing to take advantage of xylene, had
causes the upstream oil industry not to investigate for technical improvement and
environmental friendly replacement fluid. Moreover, there are very little studies about
environmental effects of xylene in upstream oil industry. In the other hand, a few
studies exist that the level of xylene had been monitored in offices and small places.
In this study, a quantitative data is presented to show the alternatives and the
motivations toward replacement stimulation fluids. The impetus toward this
significant issue is environmental and technical concerns. The former is described in
detailed and attempted to provide awareness for upstream petroleum and
1350 Energy & Environment · Vol. 23, No. 8, 2012

environmental engineers. Xylene has limited effectiveness (technical) in addition to

undesirable HSE (low flash point) and economic (expensive) effects. Xylene impacts
which discussed in this paper can be an effective awareness to upstream petroleum
industry. Also, attempt has been made to present it in ways that strengthen the desire
to seek deeper understanding of its impacts. By paying more attention to the different
aspects of xylene usage in stimulation jobs, we can better be triggering to improve the
quality and efficiency of solvents to be used in the industry. Finally, such insights will
improve our engineering and environmental protection.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors of this paper would like to express their gratitude to Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia due to the supports during this study.

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