Crude oil production in Um-Ghdair field is consider one of the most complex operational activities in Kuwait Oil Company due to high water cut percentage, asphaletene flocculation, high viscosity and tight emulsion phenomena. As the fluid travels through the reservoir, wellbore, flowline, all the way to the gathering center, the state of initial equilibrium is disturbed leading to change in the chemical composition of the crude oil. As pressure and temperature continue to drop, and gas escapes, more asphaltenes and heavy components may continue to flocculate all the way throughout the system until the petroleum reaches its final destination. In this pilot project, asphaltene inhibitor and viscosity reducer agents were selected for reducing oil viscosity and breaking the tight emulsion phenomena in the selected piloting well in Um-Ghdair field. It was noticed that there is an asphaltene compounds flocculate in the interface between oil and water leading to increase crude oil viscosity. The best two among 22 chemical formulations tested through the screening process at lab scale and take it to pilot stage. Additionally, the pilot study examined the influences effective for surfactants such as water composition, temperature, concentration, pH and total dissolved solids. It was noticed that the viscosity reduction and the water separation improve with increasing surfactant concentration and increasing temperature up to 50 °F. Two formulations were selected based on cost effective optimal concentrations of surfactant that identified from the bottle test. The pilot has been implemented successfully in the field, resulting a reduction in non-production time and increase the oil mobility from the reservoir.

The strategy of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is to implement key/emerging technologies at a country wide scale to meet future oil demand and production targets as planned in KPC 2040 strategy through overcome the field's challenges. KOC's Optimization strategy focuses on: Increased and optimize oil production from production optimizations Extension of field life Production interruption associated with pressure build up in reservoir, wellbore and flow lines have observed among many wells in West Kuwait fields perforated in Upper Burgan formation, which has a great impact on the company strategy. Tight emulsion phenomena is consider one the most challenging problems in West Kuwait wells due to the nature of asphaltenic crudes and high water cut production percentage. Traditional approaches to reduce high pressure and break the emulsion phase through injecting chemical near wellhead or in annuls is usually not successful in most cases and require large amount of chemical. Due to the complexity of this issue, a novel approach was used in this study to identify the main causes of oil production reduction and overcome the challenge to maximize oil production in West Kuwait fields.