Accurate Detection of Tagged Polymeric Scale Inhibitors in Oilfield Produced Water Samples

Vuori, Vesa; Nuutinen, Vesa; Honkanen, Tapio; Griffin, Rick; Johnstone, James; Peltokoski, Brita; Lehtonen, Annika; Suominen, Hanna; Toivonen, Susanna

doi:10.2118/179908-ms

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 16 publications

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“…For example, the authors worked with DOE (US Department of Energy) to design wells in Louisiana and Texas and demonstrated effective scale control at 0.1 to 0.2 mg/L of phosphonate inhibitor (Rogers et al 1990;Street et al 1989). Many new inhibitors have been developed for better monitoring and tracking, such as the P containing inhibitors (e.g., phosphorus end cap inhibitor) (Selle et al 2003) and fluorescence tagged inhibitors (Poynton et al 2012;Vuori et al 2016). In addition, there are multifunctional inhibitors such as one with either or both the phosphorus and the amine tags (Montgomerie et al 2009;Jordan et al 2011b), where the amine tag increases the scale inhibitor retention.…”

Section: Importance Of Inhibitor Return Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

The state of the art in scale inhibitor squeeze treatment

2020

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The mechanistic understanding of the reactions that govern the inhibitor retention and release, modeling, and the state-ofthe-art innovation in squeeze treatment are reviewed. The retention and release are governed by (1) the amount of calcite that can dissolve prior to inhibitor-induced surface poisoning; (2) calcite surface poisoning after ~ 20 molecular layers of surface coverage by the adsorbed inhibitors to retard further calcite dissolution; (3) less base, CO 2− 3 , is released into the aqueous solution; (4) formation of the more acidic inhibitor precipitates; (5) phase transformation and maturation of the more acidic inhibitor precipitates; and (6) dissolution of the less soluble crystalline inhibitor precipitates. The trend to advance squeeze technologies is through (1) enhancing scale inhibitor retention, (2) optimizing the delivery of scale inhibitors to the target zone, and (3) improving monitoring methods. Lastly, a prototype yardstick for measuring the squeeze performance is used to compare the squeeze life of 17 actual squeeze treatments. Even though the various squeeze treatments appear to be different, all published squeeze durations can be rated based on the normalized squeeze life per unit mass of inhibitors.

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Section: Importance Of Inhibitor Return Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

The state of the art in scale inhibitor squeeze treatment

2020

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Application of Advanced Fluorescence Detection Technology to Improve Scale Management in Both Conventional and Sub-Sea Fields

Heath

Toivonen

Vuori

et al. 2019

SPE International Conference on Oilfield Chemistry

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Scale inhibitor (SI) analysis is an extremely important part of scale management and, in recent years, much work has been done on the development of specialist scale inhibitor analysis techniques like Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (LCMS) to push the boundaries of low level scale inhibitor detection. However, LCMS requires costly and complex instrumentation and there was therefore still a need for the development of other advanced techniques like fluorescence (F) and Time resolved Fluorescence (TRF) that can be used on site to provide near "on line" data. Fluorescence techniques are particularly suited to tagged polymers and naturally fluorescent molecules like polyamines whereas the operation principle of TRF is based on interactions between lanthanide ions and various functional groups of polymer or phosphonate scale inhibitors. Both techniques work individually or in combination and this provides a distinct advantage for multiple scale inhibitor analysis in produced brines that enable the design of packages of different products for specific field applications. In addition, TRF and fluorescence techniques offer the capability of on-site detection compared to the majority of scale inhibitor analysis techniques and other advanced methods like LC-MS. The ability to detect both phosphonate and polymeric scale inhibitors at very low MIC (<1ppm) has the potential for significantly extending scale squeeze lifetimes. This has now also allowed highly efficient, F tagged polymers, to be used in field situations where scale squeezing was either stopped or the lifetime was significantly compromised because of the lack of confidence in the residuals analysis. Specific field and theoretical examples from both sub-sea and conventional wells will be presented where the application of both advanced fluorescence and TRF techniques has shown significant improvements in scale management. This paper will compare and contrast the pros, cons and limitations of both fluorescence and TRF techniques for both phosphonate and polymeric scale inhibitors. In addition, it will highlight examples where scale management significantly improves through the application of Fluorescence and/or TRF scale inhibitor analysis techniques in complex production scenarios.

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On-Site Analysis of Scale Squeeze Inhibitors in Remote Environments Using Fluorescence and Time Resolved Fluorescence

Heath

Green

Badawy

et al. 2020

Day 2 Thu, June 25, 2020

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Scale inhibitor (SI) analysis is an extremely important part of scale management and it is essential to have reliable methods for the accurate and precise measurement of scale inhibitor residuals in produced fluids in order to prevent wells from scaling. This information enables key decisions on the efficiency of scale squeeze and continuous chemical injection treatments especially in remote environments. In remote fields, such as in desert and extreme winter environments, the ability to be able to monitor scale squeeze residuals on-site would offer significant potential to improve scale management capability through provision of rapid data which otherwise might not be available for several weeks due to long sample transport times to the laboratory. Since conventional scale inhibitor analysis methods are not suited for on-site analysis this has led to the development of a toolbox of technology options including suitable scale inhibitor squeeze chemistry coupled with advanced, on-site, "near on-line" scale inhibitor detection procedures including Fluorescence (F) and Time Resolved Fluorescence (TRF). In this paper, two field examples for on-site TRF analysis of polymeric scale squeeze inhibitors from remote wells in harsh environments will highlight the benefits of quick and timely scale inhibitor residual information. In the example from remote desert wells, a comparison of TRF and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis of the polymer residuals will show the accuracy and precision of the TRF method at low SI levels. In addition, an example for the proof of concept of detection of three different F Tagged sulphonated polymers in the presence of a phosphonate squeeze inhibitor and continuously injected untagged polymer will demonstrate the ability of "near on line" fluorescence techniques to improve scale management where four subsea wells are co-mingled in the same flow line. This paper concludes that fluorescence techniques are particularly suited to tagged polymers and naturally fluorescent molecules whereas Time Resolved Fluorescence provides the ability to detect untagged scale inhibitors like sulphonated copolymers, phosphonates and phosphate esters. The two techniques can be used individually or in combination with each other and, in addition, offer the advantage of being able to detect polymeric and phosphonate scale inhibitors to minimum inhibitor concentration (MIC) of 1-2ppm and <1ppm respectively which offers potential to extend treatment lifetimes.

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Accurate Detection of Tagged Polymeric Scale Inhibitors in Oilfield Produced Water Samples

Cited by 4 publications

References 16 publications

The state of the art in scale inhibitor squeeze treatment

The state of the art in scale inhibitor squeeze treatment

Application of Advanced Fluorescence Detection Technology to Improve Scale Management in Both Conventional and Sub-Sea Fields

On-Site Analysis of Scale Squeeze Inhibitors in Remote Environments Using Fluorescence and Time Resolved Fluorescence

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