Rapid screening method for hydrate agglomeration and plugging assessment using high pressure differential scanning calorimetry

Gas hydrate formation during subsea oil and gas production can result in flowline blockages, which present enormous economic and safety risks. Certain crude oils have natural anti-agglomerant (AA) properties, which facilitate their non-plugging behavior over a defined operating window. Thus, it is crucial to be able to easily screen a crude oil system for its tendency to form hydrate plugs. In this paper, we present a Hydrate Plugging Assessment (HPA) technique that can be used as a rapid screening method to evaluate the plugging tendency using a high pressure differential scanning calorimeter (HP-DSC). The technique requires a small crude oil sample (~15 mg), and the experimental time is relatively short. In this work, HP-DSC tests were conducted on 13 crude oils (22 to 45 ˚API). Tests were conducted at various water contents, salinity, chemical dosage (without/with AAs), and different hydrate structures. The results show that an increase in water content destabilizes the emulsion, and increases the hydrate plugging risks. An increase in salinity decreases hydrate plugging tendency. Different hydrate crystal structures showed that for a similar water content, salinity, and driving force, structure II (sII) hydrates have a slightly greater agglomeration tendency compared to structure I (sI) hydrates. Finally, the effect of combining a low stability oil with a high stability oil showed that the resulting emulsion retained the high stability property, paving the possibility for natural oil treatment. In summary, these studies show that the HPA technique is a cost-effective and attractive method to evaluate hydrate plugging tendency.