Oil Characterization and Thermodynamics as Related to Flow Assurance

Keeping crude oil pipelines in flowing is of economic and strategic importance in all geographic locations of the world. Oil is being produced from increasingly deep prospects off-shore. In the process, oils with significantly different characteristics get mixed. Oils are complex mixtures and contain varying amounts of waxes and asphaltenes. Waxes precipitate when temperatures drop below wax precipitation temperatures and asphaltenes come out of solution when pressures are reduced or when incompatible solvents are mixed with oils. In this session, we will address fundamental characterization of oils and their bulk and thermodynamic properties including rheological properties. We will also consider contributions about thermodynamic, flow and integrated models and papers addressing oil compatibility issues.