Asphaltene Precipitation From Reservoir Fluids: Asphaltene Solubility and Particle Size vs. Pressure

Abstract

Abstract The near-infrared (NIR) light scattering technique, commercially known assolids detection system (SDS) is widely used to determine the asphalteneprecipitation pressure in reservoir fluids. In this study the SDS is used tocompare samples collected from the same zone in the same well at the same timebut in different sample chambers. The SDS technique is further compared withhigh pressure filtration for the same fluid studied by SDS In addition,asphaltene precipitation as a function of pressure was determined. The results of this study indicate that the SDS test provides a quick toolto determine the asphatene precipitation pressure but has limited sensitivity.Furthermore, the bulk of asphaltenes tended to precipitate within a narrowpressure range near the precipitation onset pressure for the fluid sampletested in this study.