%T Experimental investigation of compressibility of waxy crude oil subjected to static cooling
%I Elsevier B.V.
%A S.A. Sulaiman
%A G.T. Chala
%A M.Z. Zainur
%V 182
%D 2019
%R 10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106378
%O cited By 7
%L scholars11186
%J Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering
%K Compressibility; Compression testing; Cooling; Crude oil, Compressibility effects; Experimental investigations; Flow restart; Production pipelines; Pumping pressure; Thermal shrinkage; Transportation efficiency; Waxy Crude Oil, Petroleum transportation, compressibility; cooling; crude oil; experimental study; fluid pressure; gel
%X Transportation of waxy crude oil confronts many difficulties due to the formation of gel in the production pipelines, which interrupts the steady production with low transportation efficiency and this later requires a higher pumping pressure to resume the flow. However, the current conventional equation is perceived to be over-predicted, mainly due to low attention given for the compressibility effects. Compressibility of the waxy crude oil has been theoretically reported to have significant influence on the restart pressure of the flow start-up or restart. Moreover, there is limited study on compressibility of waxy crude oil induced by the formation of intra-gel voids as a result of thermal shrinkage encountered during static cooling. This study is, therefore, aimed at investigating the compressibility of waxy crude oil gel experimentally. The experiment included the use of flow loop rig to produce gel at different conditions. The pressure pump rig was designed and fabricated for the compressibility tests. Experiments were conducted at different cooling rates and seabed temperatures. It was observed that higher seabed temperature and slower cooling rates contribute to higher compressibility tendencies. The specimen with faster cooling rates is proven to be less compressible. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.