Prevention of Central Terminal Upsets Related to Stimulation and Consolidated Treatments
Authors: Gidley John L. , Hanson H.R. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the 48th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 1973. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgement of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Much of the oil production from offshore Louisiana is sent by pipeline directly to an onshore terminal where the first oil and water separation is accomplished. The demulsification operation, which is capable of routinely producing pipeline oil, can be upset by returns producing pipeline oil, can be upset by returns from stimulation or sand control treatments on offshore wells, and separation at the terminal made extremely difficult.

This paper presents methods of identifying the treatments that cause the terminal upsets and provides a description of laboratory tests provides a description of laboratory tests capable of indicating effective surface active materials to incorporate in stimulation treatments to eliminate the terminal upset problem. Terminal upsets related to acidizing are thought to be caused by fine particles loosened from the formation by the acid. These fine particles cause stable emulsions in the presence of spent mud acid and effluent from certain sand consolidation treatments. Prevention of upsets requires altering the wettability of the particles by chemicals that are strong water wetters.

Introduction

The separation of oil and water from offshore production facilities is often accomplished production facilities is often accomplished onshore because of space limitations and the cost of offshore platforms. The problem about to be described has resulted from production from oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of southern Louisiana, from Grand Isle Blocks 16 and 18, South Timbalier Block 54, and West Delta Blocks 73 and 117, operated primarily by Exxon Company, U.S.A. The terminal facility where oil and water separation is accomplished is located at Grand Isle, Louisiana, where approximately 120,000 barrels of oil and 35,000 barrels of water are separated each day. The water produced from this operation, after further treatment, is discharged in an environmentally acceptable fashion into one of the nearby bayous. This facility is operated by Exxon Pipeline Company. A schematic diagram of this operation is shown in Figure 1.

Significant increases in production from these offshore fields during the late 60's and early 70's taxed the separation capabilities of the terminal facility and made its operation more sensitive to changes in the input stream.