Emulsions Stabilized by Indigenous Reservoir Particles: Influence of Chemical Additive

Abstract

Interfacially active inorganic particles from the reservoir are often produced together with crude oil. These fines can have a tendency to accumulate at the water/oil interface and eventually stabilize w/o and o/w emulsions. The properties of the particles will change through interactions with indigenous crude oil components and also with added production chemicals. In this work focus has been towards a real system with particles sampled from the separator located on an installation on the Norwegian continental shelf. Stabilizing properties of different particle fraction has been studied (for both oil and water continuous emulsions). It is reported that the solids interact strongly with chemical additives. Silicon oil, used as foam inhibitor during production, adsorbs to the limestone particles and alters the properties of the fines dramatically.