INTRODUCTION TO

PRODUCTION
CHEMICALS
BONY BUDIMAN
2021

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bony-budiman-39886031/
 COMMON QUESTIONS

• What chemicals are used in oil and gas

field ?
• How to classify the chemicals ?
• How is simple work principle of the
chemicals ?
• How to apply the chemicals ?

Courtesy Picture : https://www.whatech.com/markets-research/mining/567643-oilfield-chemicals-market-analysis-trends-top-manufacturers-share-growth-statistics-opportunities-forecast-to-2026

OUTLINE

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• INTRODUCTION
• OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• CHEMICALS APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• The chemicals referred to in this presentation are limited to Oil and

Gas Production Chemicals.
• Sharing some problems in oil and gas field that related to
production chemistry.
• Sharing general information how chemicals support oil and gas
production activities. The information of each chemical presented in
1 slide/chemical only. Details information for each chemicals may be
found in others references.
OUTLINE

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• INTRODUCTION
• OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• CHEMICALS APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
 CHEMICALS IN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

OIL AND GAS

CHEMICALS • A lot of chemicals used in oil and gas industry,
DRILLING PRODUCTION DOWNSTREAM
from drilling, production until downstream process
CHEMICALS CHEMICALS CHEMICALS

• Production chemicals are chemicals that used

Gas Treatment
during production phase of oil and gas.

Oil Treatment
• The area of usage are from downhole-production
line-separation facilities-storage for shipping
Water Treatment
PRODUCTION CHEMISTRY – PROBLEMS(1)

Production chemistry issues occur as a result of chemical and physical changes to the well stream fluids, as they are transported
from the reservoir through the processing system. In general, production chemistry problems are one of four types:
1. DEPOSIT
This is defined as the deposition of any unwanted matter in a system and includes scales, corrosion products and hydrocarbon deposit

2. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE FLUID.

Foams, emulsions, and viscous flow are examples.

3. INTEGRITY
These are mainly corrosion-related issues.

4. ENVIRONMENTAL OR ECONOMIC.
Oily water discharge can damage the environment, and the presence of sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide (H 2S) has
environmental and economic consequences.
FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE CHOICE OF
PRODUCTION CHEMICALS(1)
• Generally, an operator wants a product that performs satisfactorily at an affordable price. The
overall performance may be based on more than one test.
• A number of factors affect the choice of production chemicals. These include
1. Performance
2. Price
3. Stability
4. Health and safety in handling and storage
5. Environmental restrictions
6. Compatibility issues
PRODUCTION CHEMICALS CLASSIFICATION

There are some method to classify the production chemicals :

• Based on composition : commodity and specialty chemicals
• Based on solvent solubility : water based and hydrocarbon based
• Based on problem function : integrity, phase separation,
environment and flow assurance chemicals
• Based on treated fluid : gas, oil and water chemicals
OUTLINE

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• INTRODUCTION
• OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• CHEMICALS APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS

• Oil treatment chemicals are chemicals that used in oil phase. The chemicals shall be oil
soluble or oil dispersible.
• Some oil treatment chemicals are :
• Demulsifier
• Pour Point Depressant
• Asphaltene Inhibitor
• Drag Reducin Agent
 DEMULSIFIER

• Demulsifier is chemical used to break the water in oil emulsion

• Dosage vary from 5 – 100 ppm based on emulsified crude oil volume
• Injected continuously before the separation unit

Water = • Performance parameters are water content/BS&W, water separation

25% Water = volume, and separation time.
0.5%
• For example at picture behind, the water content at top level :
• Emulsified crude = 25%
• Demulsified crude = 0.5 %

Courtesy Picture : https://jestec.taylors.edu.my/Vol%2012%20issue%2012%20December%202017/12_12_4.pdf

 POUR POINT DEPRESSANT

• The pour point of a crude oil is the lowest temperature at

which the oil will pour or flow when it is cooled, without
stirring, under standard cooling conditions(2)
BLANK • Below the pour point, crude oil will be deposited then
PPD A cause problem in flow assurance and equipment failure.
1000 PPM
• PPD is chemical to decrease the pour point so the crude
PPD B
oil could flow below its original pour point temperature.
1000 PPM • The dosage varies from hundreds to thousands pp of
treated crude oil
• At picture beside, PPD B at dosage 1000 ppm could
decrease pour point of crude oil from 22oC to -10oC

Courtesy Picture : HTS Consultants Oilfield Production Chemicals and Microbiology,2007

 ASPHALTENE INHIBITOR

• Asphaltene is defined as “the heaviest component of

petroleum fluids that is insoluble in light n-alkanes such
as n-pentane or n-heptane, but soluble in aromatics such as
toluene”(3)
• Asphaltene deposit cause problem in phase separation, flow
assurance and equipment failure.
• Asphaltene inhibitor is chemical that used to prevent
asphaltene deposition. The dosage usually in hundreds ppm
• At pictures beside, Asphaltene particles (grey) are coated by
inhibitor (red) which acts as a dispersant and prevents
formation of large flocculent aggregates(4)

Courtesy Picture : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106502

 DRAG REDUCING AGENT(5)

• Fluid flow rate may be limited caused by high turbulence flow mode.
DRA
Injection • Drag reducers, also known as drag reducing agents (DRA) and flow
improvers, are any material that reduces frictional pressure loss during
fluid flow in a conduit or pipeline.
• Using DRA allows increased flow using the same amount of energy
or decreased pressure drop for the same flow rate of fluid in pipelines
• Dosage of DRA varies from tens to hundreds ppm
• DRA also used to improve flow rate of water and gas.
• At picture beside, after DRA injection, pressure decrease from 1000
psi to 250 psi

Courtesy Picture : https://www.pipars.com/drag-reducing-agent/

OUTLINE

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• INTRODUCTION
• OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• CHEMICALS APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS

• Natural gas may be produced alongside with others components such as water, CO 2 and
H2S.

• At certain condition and concentration, the others component could be sources of

problem such as corrosion, health-safety and flow assurance.
• Some types of chemicals used for gas treatment :
• Hydrate inhibitor
• H2S scavenger
• CO2 removal
 HYDRATE INHIBITOR

• Hydrates are solid structures that contain small trapped gas

molecules (CH4, C2H6, CO2, and C3H8) inside hydrogen-
bonded water cages. Hydrates typically form at high pressure
and low temperature(6)
• Hydrate inhibitors are chemicals that injected to prevent or
to postponed the hydrate deposit formation
• At picture beside, a (kinetic) hydrate inhibitor delay the
hydrate formation time to condition where the pressure
decrease and temperature increase so the hydrate is no longer
being a risk.

Courtesy Picture : https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1875510017303281-fx1.jpg/

 H2S SCAVENGER

• Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a colorless gas known for its pungent

+ H2 S "rotten egg" odor at low concentrations. It is extremely flammable
Scavenger and highly toxic(7)
• H2S scavenger is chemicals used to reduced the H2S content to
acceptable level.
• H2S scavenger injected continuously. The dosage will be depend on
H2S concentration. For example wet gas injection regime, moderate
residence time Scavenging of H2S from 40 ppm(v) to the required <3
Total Gas = Gas H2S
ppm(v) required a scavenger dosage of approximately 10L/kg H2S(8)
• This chemical also applied in water phase and in oil phase.
 CO2 REMOVAL

• Naturally CO2 will be co-produced gas in oil and gas

production.
• CO2 must be removed from natural gas, because CO 2
is highly corrosive in the presence of moisture (water)
which rapidly destroys pipelines and equipment. It
also reduces the heating value of a natural gas stream
and wastes pipeline capacity (9)
• CO2 removal in gas processing usually combine with
the absorption unit and regeneration unit to recover
the chemicals

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OUTLINE

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• INTRODUCTION
• OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• CHEMICALS APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS

• Water is a mother of problem in oil and gas production. Water and its dissolved
components are source of corrosion, deposition, bacteria.
• Water reduce selling point of crude oil (known as water cut factor), increase cost of
transportation and potential environment pollutant.
• Water treatment (oil and gas) chemicals are chemicals that used to separate water from
hydrocarbon phase and to minimize effect of the dissolved components.
• Some water treatment chemicals are : reverse demulsifier, corrosion inhibitor, scale
inhibitor,oxygen scavenger and biocide.
 REVERSE DEMULSIFIER

• Oil in water emulsion is condition when oil

droplet dispersed in water phase
• Oil in water emulsion may cause production loss,
plugging especially at water injection well and
+ Reverse environmental issue
Blank Treated
450 ppm OiW Demulsifier
25 ppm OiW • Reverse demulsifier (a.k.a water
clarifier/deolier/reverse emulsion breaker) used
to separate the oil from water phase.
• Injected continuously at low dosage usually
below10 ppm of water rate
 SCALE INHIBITOR (SI)

Without SI With SI • (Inorganic) scale is deposited salts in pipeline or equipment

facilities in oil and gas production system.
• Scale inhibitor is chemicals that used to reduce the scaling growth
• The chemical must be injected far away upstream of deposit
occur, it could be as upstream as downhole.
• The injection mode could be continues or squeeze
• At pictures beside, the left is scale coupon that immersed at fluid
without treatment that filmed with scale and some holes are
covered by deposits and the right picture is scale coupon that
immersed at treated fluid.

Courtesy Picture : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jose-Garcia/publication/266664094/figure/fig3/AS:295739830882309@1447521278437/Scale-

coupon-comparison-between-commercial-inhibitor-and-the-Aloe-vera-based-scale.png
 CORROSION INHIBITOR

• Corrosion is material degradation. In oil and gas production,

+ Corrosion most of the term refer to rust product of carbon steel.
Inhibitor • High corrosion rate lead to facility integrity failure,
environmental pollutant and even safety issue.
• Corrosion Inhibitor is chemical used to reduce corrosion rate
to acceptable design.
27.4 mpy 3.5 mpy
• At illustration pictures beside, injection Corrosion Inhibitor
could decrease corrosion rate from 27.4 mpy to 3.5 mpy.
OXYGEN SCAVENGER

• Oxygen not common found in the reservoir, the

+ Oxygen
Scavenger
concentration usually below 20 ppb (0.02 ppm).
• Oxygen may ingress to the production water
through leaking in the topside or when mixed with
other liquid that already contain oxygen.
• Oxygen Scavenger is chemical used to reduce
oxygen level to non corrosion zone, for example ≤
50 ppb
 BIOCIDE

• Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are a major bacterial

+ Biocide group involved in microbiologically influenced corrosion
• Biocide / bactericide is chemical that used to control
bacteria population growth.
• Biocide injected continuously and or batching mode
• Dosage varies up to tenths in continuous mode to
hundreds in batching mode.
• At illustration picture beside, biocide could reduce
bacteria population from 105 coll/cc to below 10 coll/cc
105 coll/cc < 10 coll/cc
OUTLINE

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• INTRODUCTION
• OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• CHEMICALS APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
 CHEMICALS APPLICATION

• Production chemicals performance

will depends on :
• Injection Mode
• The chemistry
• Dosage
• Compatibility
• Injection point.

Courtesy Picture : https://media.istockphoto.com/vectors/performance-chart-vector-id471513764

 INJECTION MODE

• Most of production chemicals shall be injected

continuously to ensure uninterrupted treatment,
INJECTION
MODE • Some chemicals may injected in batching mode /
shock dose to get immediate result such as when
CONTINUES the emulsion pad was so thick and tight or to
CONTINUES BATCHING AND remove existing scale deposit.
BATCHING
• Other mode is combination between continuous
and batching. This mode applied for example in
bacteria control.
 THE CHEMISTRY

• Some of production chemicals categorized as “Specialty

Chemicals”.
• Specialty chemicals are tailor made, suitable for specific
field with specific pressure, temperature and fluid
composition.
• Need extensive field study. Laboratory test and field test to
get best class of specialty chemicals.
• Some of specialty chemicals are Demulsifier, Corrosion
Inhibitor, Reverse Demulsifier, and Pour Point Depressant

Courtesy Picture :https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/39825031/corrosion-inhibitor-a261-msds

DOSAGE

• Optimum dosage is critical to achieve

performance target
• Under dosage will lead to non optimum result.
• Some chemicals especially chemicals that
contain surfactant has over treat point. At
dosage above over treat point, the
performance is even worst than under dosage.
COMPATIBILITY

• The injected chemicals will meet with other fluid : produced

fluid and or others chemicals.
• The injected chemicals has risk to be incompatible. For
example flocculant type of reverse demulsfiier may not
compatible at water treatment unit that contain significant
volume of heavy crude or Corrosion Inhibitor will react
with Oxygen Scavenger if they injected too close each
other.
• A laboratory compatibility test may required to ensure the
compatibility of injected chemicals.
 INJECTION POINT

• It is recommended that production chemicals

INJECTION POINT
CONSIDERATION injected upstream of problem are expected. For
example if the scale predict to occur in
production line, the scale inhibitor shall be
TOPSIDE – injected downhole.
SUBSEA - TEMPERATURE TURBULENCE
DOWNHOLE
• Some chemicals require good mixing to
enhance the performance such as reverse
demulsifier and DRA
• Others chemicals require high temperature to
work efficiently such as demulsifier and PPD
OUTLINE

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE

• INTRODUCTION
• OIL TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• GAS TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
• CHEMICALS APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
SUMMARY

• Production Chemicals are chemicals that used during

production phase of oil and gas operation.
• Production Chemicals injected from downhole-topside-
separating process until shipping tank.
• Some factors affecting performance of Production Chemicals :
injection mode, the chemistry, dosage, compatibility and
injection point.
•
REFERENCES

1. Production Chemicals for the Oil and Gas Industry , 2nd edition, Malcolm A. Kelland, CRC Press, 2014
2. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/fsc432/content/pour-point
3. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13202-019-00811-5
4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106502
5. https://www.liquidpower.com/what-is-dra/about-dra-and-how-it-works/
6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/hydrate
7. https://www.osha.gov/hydrogen-sulfide
8. SPE 71541 : The Development of Low-Sour Gas Reserves Utilizing Direct-Injection Liquid Hydrogen
Sulphide Scavengers
9. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1003-9953(11)60325-3
10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5014316/