THE RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF WATER-IN-CRUDE-OIL EMULSIONS

A. Stockwell, A.S. Taylor and D.G. Thompson

BP Research Centre
Chertsey Road, Sunbury-on-Thames
Middlesex, TW16 7LN, England

The presence of water dispersed in crude oil as a water-

in-oil emulsion can lead to a variety of problems in
the production and transportation of crude oil. Problems
associated with transportation are manifested by the
increase in viscosity of the produced fluids when water
is present. In order to gain a better understanding of
this undesirable phenomenon and to supplement
demulsification research, the rheological properties of
water-in-crude oil emulsions have been investigated with
respect to the effects of disperse phase volume, disperse
phase droplet size and temperature. The results obtained
with different crude oils indicate that the viscosity of
the water-in-light crude oil emulsions increases with
increasing water content and decreasing water droplet
size. At low water content, the emulsions are Newtonian
but with increasing water content deviations from Newtonian
behaviour occur. The results illustrate how the
precipitation of certain crude oil indigenous surface
active materials affects both the rheological properties
and the dehydration of these emulsions.

INTRODUCTION

Crude oils are found in reservoirs almost always associated with gas and
saline water. It is quite likely, therefore, that at some stage in the
production of crude oil the coproduction of water will also occur. This
generally happens as the reservoir becomes progressively depleted when the
coproduced water can either originate from the water bearing section of
the reservoir or from water injected as a means of secondary or tertiary
oil recovery. Whatever the nature of the water phase, as its coproduction
ensues so it is readily dispersed by the simultaneous action of shear and
pressure drop at well-head chokes and valves. The water-in-oil emulsions
so formed are stabilised by the presence of crude oil indigenous
surfactants which adsorb at the oil-water interface forming an interfacial
skin around each water droplet l - 7 • It is this physical barrier to
coalescence that gives rise to the general high stability of water-in-crude
oil emulsions. With certain crude oils it has been demonstrated that
this skin can be augmented by the presence of small, solid wax particles 8 •

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K. L. Mittal et al. (eds.), Surfactants in Solution

© Plenum Press, New York 1986
The formation of water-in-crude oil emulsions can lead to a variety of
problems which include: the expense of pumping or transporting the saline
water via pipeline or tanker; the corrosion of production equipment and
downstream overhead distillation columns; the additional production
equipment required to give export quality crude oil; and the poisoning
of refinery catalysts. It is clear, therefore, that there are commercial
and operating reasons for removing this emulsified water at an early
stage in the production scheme. However, under certain circumstances it
is not possible to resolve emulsions prior to pipeline transportation;
for example, in the production of crude oil from satellite wells or from
unmanned offshore platforms. Then the immediate production problem lies
not with the removal of the water, but with the increase in viscosity
brought about by the presence of emulsified water droplets in a cooling
crude oil. It is this aspect which the current paper will attempt to
address by focussing attention upon the change in the rheological
properties of the crude oil when water is introduced in an emulsified
form. A knowledge of the rheological behaviour of the emulsion is
essential if the design engineer is to propose the correct installation
of facilities for pumping the produced water-in-oil emulsion. Indeed,
the results may influence the decision as to whether to dehydrate the
oil prior to transportation.

Thus, we will show how variables, such as water droplet size, disperse
phase volume and temperature influence the rheological properties of
water-in-crude oil emulsions. Then we will develop a theme which
demonstrates how the presence, or otherwise, of fine solids at the crude
oil-water interface can affect the bulk rheology of the emulsions.
Tentative evidence for this has been presented elsewhere 8 • The current
studies have been extended to enable us to consider how the rheological
properties of emulsions prepared with different crude oil types can be
affected by the presence of other oil indigenous chemical species, such
as asphaltenes.

Finally, we shall demonstrate how the observed rheological behaviour

coincides with the resolution of water-in-crude oil emulsions.

It is our intention to highlight the importance of emulsion rheology as

applied to the production and transportation of crude oils, an area
which hitherto has received little attention.

EXPERIMENTAL

Materials

A North Sea crude oil was used in the majority of the current studies.
However, in a limited number of experiments, crude oils from the Middle
East and Canada were also used. The abbreviated assays of all three
crude oils are listed in Table 1. The North Sea and Middle East crude
oils contain similar proportions of wax and are of similar gravity and
viscosity at 20°C. However, note that the Middle East crude oil contains
six times the asphaltene content of the North Sea crude oil. The Canadian
crude oil is much more dense than the other two (almost equivalent to
the density of water), is about three orders of magnitude more viscous
and, importantly, contains almost no wax, but approximately fifty and
eight times the concentration of asphaltene compared with the North Sea
and Middle East crude oils, respectively.

The oils were sampled into clean drums, from dry production wells, upstream
of any chemical injection facilities and are therefore considered to be
water and additive free. The samples were allowed to degas at atmospheric

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