Investigation of Removing Asphaltene-Resin-Paraffin Deposits by Chemical Method for Azerbaijan High-Paraffin Oil Production Process

Asphaltene-resin-paraffin deposition (ARPD) is a complicated and prevalent issue in the oil and gas industry, impacting the efficiency and integrity of petroleum extraction, production, transportation and processing systems. Considering all witnessed ARPD problems in Azerbaijan oil fields, this paper proposed a chemical method and optimized the type and concentration of chemical inhibitors. Then, the effect of selected chemical reagents on inhibiting the ARPD amount and thus enhancing oil recovery was detected by reservoir simulation during both waterflooding and CO 2 flooding production. Three new chemical compounds (namely, Chemical-A, Chemical-B and Chemical-C) were examined in laboratory conditions, and their impact on rheological properties of high-paraffin oilfield samples of Azerbaijan (X, Y and Z) were investigated. Experimental results show that Chemical-C with a concentration of 600 g/t has the best efficiency for alleviating the problems. After adding Chemical-C to the crude oil, the freezing point of oil was decreased from 12 °C to (−4) °C, the ARPD amount declined from 0.185 to 0.016 g, and oil effective viscosity was reduced from 16.2 mPa·s to 3.1 mPa·s. It was determined that for water and CO 2 flooding, higher injection pressure resulted in reduced asphaltene precipitation. Adding the selected ARPD inhibitor, the oil recovery for waterflooding can increase from 52% to 62%, while it can rise from 55% to 68% for CO 2 flooding.