Roadmap to Asphaltene Characteristics, Properties and Presence in Crude Oils based on an Updated Database from Laboratory Studies

Abstract

Asphaltene is one of the components of crude oil that can cause many problems during oil production. Understanding the asphaltene chemical structure and the conditions at which asphaltene instability was reported is extremely important in avoiding asphaltene related problems. Several experimental researches have been conducted to evaluate asphaltene concentration, particle and aggregate size, elemental content, precipitation, flocculation, deposition, pore plugging, adsorption and wettability alteration. This research constructs a roadmap on asphaltene instability conditions using data from more than 200 laboratory studies reported on asphaltene instability problems. This research aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed data analysis on asphaltene properties, and the factors affecting asphaltene equilibrium to determine the working conditions at which asphaltene has been studied and the main properties of asphaltene in crude oil. The data collected included 219 laboratory studies including more than 4000 experiments from countries across the globe. The data analysis involved gathering and cleaning of the data, homogenizing the units, and then analyzing the data using two statistical analysis tools including histograms and boxplots. The figures generated using these two statistical analysis tools include asphaltene properties, heteroatoms concentration, crude oil properties, and thermodynamic conditions. To the authors' knowledge, no comprehensive data analysis has been performed on asphaltene in crude oil, which makes this research significant in terms of determining the lab and field properties that mostly affect asphaltene in crude oil and the working condition affecting asphaltene equilibrium.

Meeting Name

Carbon Management Technology Conference 2019, CMTC 2019 (2019: Jul. 15-18, Houston, TX)

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

Center for Research in Energy and Environment (CREE)

Keywords and Phrases

Crude oil; Data handling; Information analysis; Laboratories; Particle size analysis; Petroleum analysis; Precipitation (chemical); Statistical methods, Asphaltene instability; Elemental contents; Experimental research; Laboratory studies; Oil production; Statistical analysis tools; Thermodynamic conditions; Wettability alteration, Asphaltenes

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-161399724-6

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2019 Carbon Management Technology Conference 2019, CMTC 2019, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jul 2019

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