CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

        Wax deposition is a common phenomenon that is one of the main flow assurance problems faced by the oil industry, affecting numerous oil companies around the world. Wax deposition can result in the restriction of crude oil flow in the pipeline, creating pressure abnormalities and causing an artificial blockage leading to a reduction or interruption in the production. However, in an extreme case, this can cause a pipeline or production facility to be abandoned. The wax deposition also leads to formation damage near the wellbore, reduction in permeability, changes in the reservoir fluid composition and fluid rheology due to phase separation as wax solid precipitates. One of the important issues to be noted is that the wax deposit is not solid wax, but a gel that consists of solid wax crystals and trapped liquid. The deposit is also known to harden with time in a process termed aging (Venkatesan and Creek, 2007). The precipitation of wax components out of the oil is responsible for changes in the waxy crude oil properties, including the gelation of oil and an increase in viscosity (Zhu et al; 2008). Wax contains a high molecular weight n-Paraffin and consists of long chain alkanes with 20 to 50 carbon atoms.4 Wax can precipitate as a solid phase when the crude oil pressure drops below the wax appearance pressure (WAT): the pressure at which the first wax crystals start to form in the crude oil in a cooling process (Time, 2011). Wax can precipitate and

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