Abstract

Asphaltene precipitation is one of conventional problem in crude oil production and refining process. Changes in temperature, pressure and composition are the main factors causing asphaltene instability. Pressure effect is studied in many literatures but temperature effect remains obscure yet. The onset pressure for asphaltene precipitation can be obtained by spectroscopy techniques such as transferring near infrared lights (NIR) through crude oil or by magnifier visual apparatus (HPM). The objective of the study was to evaluate the asphaltene instability in the reservoir fluid samples from one of southwest Iranian wells (Fahlyian Layers 2 and 3) at various temperatures of various visual methods. The main point in this work is studying temperature effect on initiation of asphaltene nuclei formation.

Key words: Asphaltene precipitation process, temperature effect, NIR method, HPM (high pressure microscopy) method.