Crude oil production increase with PROCHINOR®DR

Tuesday, Jan 10, 2012

The first industrial application of a Drag Reducer Additive (DRA) from the PROCHINOR®DR range has been conducted successfully in an offshore platform in Abu Dhabi. The good results of that field test have made possible to demonstrate the efficiency of those additives in very difficult conditions.

DRA products reduce the pressure drop along a pipeline transporting a fluid. When such pipe transports crude oil, the direct result of injecting a DRA can be an increase in crude oil production.

The oil field where the industrial test was carried out was composed of nine wells connected to an unmanned platform. At the moment when we started injection of PROCHINOR®DR 220 only five out of those nine wells were producing. The main platform was connected to onshore installations through a main oil line (MOL) of 57 km. Our customer was interested in injecting a DRA to compensate the forecasted decline in oil production and to revive some of the already dead wells.

The injection of small amounts of PROCHINOR®DR 220 (i.e. ppm level) made possible to reduce the pressure drop along the MOL with an overall maximum increase in production of 7,000 barrels oil per day. During the second half of the field test the customer was able to open two of the dead wells and bring them back to production thanks to the effect of our product on their installations. Our customer was impressed and happy with the overall increase in production due to the injection of PROCHINOR®DR 220.

Although the effect of a DRA in single phase systems (i.e. dry crude oil) is not new, the application of those additives in multiphase systems (producing oil, water and gas) started only recently and pose many technical challenges. The application of PROCHINOR®DR 220 in this offshore platform in Abu Dhabi is the first of a series of field tests planned with our PROCHINOR®DR products for 2012.

Source: CECA Arkema Group