ISSN: 2638-1974

International
Journal of Petrochemistry and Research
Review Article Open Access

Introduction to Wax Deposition

Muhammad Ali Theyab* and Sarah Yousif Yahya
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Iraq

Article Info Abstract

*Corresponding author: This work is presents in brief an introduction to wax deposition process to give a
Muhammad Ali Theyab general understand of this problem because of arising the challenges of growing wax
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific
Research deposition in the hydrocarbon pipelines by increasing production in the cold
Iraq environment due to increasing demand for energy. Background and identification of
E-mail: [email protected] wax deposition problem in the hydrocarbon pipelines are presented. Mitigation methods
are used to address this problem, such as chemical, mechanical and thermal methods,
Received: April 10, 2018 but despite the available inhibition methods, many oil companies currently suffer from
Accepted: May 2, 2018
Published: May 7, 2018 wax deposition problems and are still looking for a good solution to solve this issue.
This research presents some of the case studies of wax deposition around the world and
Citation: Theyab MA, Yahya SY. Introduction the methods followed to mitigate wax deposition of each case study.
to Wax Deposition. Int J Petrochem Res.
Numerous researchers have used various different types of chemical inhibitors, such
2018; 2(1): 126-131.
doi: 10.18689/ijpr-1000122 as polyacrylate polymer, copolymer esters, polyethylene, olefin/ester copolymers,
ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymers, ester/vinyl acetate copolymers, polymethacrylates,
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s). This work alkyl phenol resins, xylene and toluene, to studying their influence on the rheology of
is licensed under a Creative Commons crude oil and to evaluate the suitable inhibitor for the waxy crude oil that provides the
Attribution 4.0 International License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
desired results in preventing wax deposition.
reproduction in any medium, provided the The decent understanding and managing of wax deposition phenomena before it
original work is properly cited.
happens is strongly required in order to overcome the challenges in production and
Published by Madridge Publishers transportation of pipelines in the cold environment.
Keywords: Wax deposition, Problem identification, Case study, Chemical inhibitors,
Spiral flow.

Introduction
The world demand for energy has led oil companies to expand their operations in
cold environments such as the offshore deepwater and onshore for more reservoirs.
During hydrocarbon production in the cold environment, these oil companies are
challenged by wax deposition problem building up on the pipe wall.
Crude oil is a complex mixture and contain a main components of saturates
(paraffins/waxes), aromatics, asphaltenes, naphthenes and resins. The high molecular
weight paraffin (wax) is naturally responsible for the problems during production and
transportation in the hydrocarbon pipeline systems.
The accumulation of wax in the oil pipelines depends on the difference temperature
between crude oil and pipe wall. There are two conditions should be available to occur
wax deposition in the crude oil pipe. Those conditions are involved, the temperature of
the crude oil close to the pipe wall should be less than the wax appearance temperature,
and the pipe wall temperature must be lower than the oil temperature [1]. Wax
deposition process is influenced and controlled by some factors, such as pipe wall
temperature (inlet coolant temperature), flow rate, pressure drop, oil temperature, shear
stress, recirculation time of crude oil and viscosity.
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International Journal of Petrochemistry and Research

At the reservoirs, wax molecules are dissolved in the crude overcome the challenges in production and transportation of
oil because of the temperatures range between (70 - 150 °C) and pipelines in the cold environment.
pressures range between (50-100MPa). Though, crude oil flows
through the subsea pipeline resting on the cold environment of Background of Wax Deposition
ocean floor at a temperature of 4°C, the temperature of oil in
time decreases below its wax appearance temperature because As early as 1928, wax deposition was reported as an issue
of the heat losses to the surroundings [2]. that led to challenges in the crude oil production,
transportation and storage [8]. In 1969, control of wax
Wax molecules start to precipitate out of the crude oil
deposition in U.S. domestic production annually cost $4.5-$5
when the solubility of wax decreases drastically as the
million. The problem of onshore wax deposition could be
temperature decreases. Oil production in deep sea areas and
addressed by relatively simple methods, including the
cold environment onshore has increased significantly due to
optimisation of the operating conditions (pipeline size,
the high demand for energy.
pressure, etc.), because of easy access and management of
The exploration and production technologies in deep sea these resources. Heating of the onshore pipeline or mechanical
areas have made deep water drilling economically feasible removal of the wax deposit was used occasionally, but was
and the oil industry has drilled subsea oil wells as far as 160 generally not as prohibitive [8].
miles away from the shore. As oil wells are developed further
During the late twentieth century, as the problem of wax
offshore, wax problems will become more severe and
deposition became increasingly challenging, as the production
extensive due to the increased transportation lines on the
of petroleum fluids shifted from onshore resources toward
cold ocean floor [3][2].
offshore reservoirs around the world [8]. In Lasmo oilfield in UK,
In 2015, the global offshore oil production reached 9.3 the problem of wax deposition was so severe and frequent that
million barrels per day (including lease condensate and led to abandon the entire field at a cost of over $100 million [1].
hydrocarbon gas liquids) from deepwater projects. Deepwater
The severity of the wax problem needs evaluated in the
production has increased 25% from nearly 7 million b/d a
design of every subsea and onshore development across the
decade ago. Shallow water has been somewhat less expensive
world, including the Gulf of Mexico, the North Slope, the North
and less technically challenging for operators to explore and
Sea, North Africa, Northeast Asia, Southern Asia and South
drill, but changing economics and the exhaustion of some
America [8], see Figure 1; about the onshore including oil fields
shallow offshore resources has helped to push producers to
in North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Europe to
deepwater or, in some areas, ultra-deepwater (at depths of
estimate the cost of suitable remediation methods for wax
1,500 meters or more) resources. The share of offshore
deposition in the subsea pipeline and to avoid blockage.
production from shallow water in 2015 was 64%, the lowest
on record [4].
This research is showing the challenges arising from the
growing size of wax deposition in the hydrocarbon pipelines
by increasing production in the cold environment. Therefore,
some of case studies of wax deposition in the crude oil
pipelines around the world are presented during this research.
Many oil companies around the world used different
techniques to reduce wax deposition in the pipelines such as
chemical inhibitors, mechanical and thermal techniques. Most
of the oil companies preferred the chemical inhibitors because
it not needs to stop production.
Many researchers, as will see in this work, preferred
chemical inhibitors in their research to reduce wax deposition.
While, Theyab and Diaz (2016a, 2016b, 2016c) [5][6][7] were
Figure 1. Areas reported to have wax deposition problem around
used the chemical inhibitors such as polyacrylate polymer the world [7].
(C16-C22), spiral flow, and the combination of the chemical
inhibitor with the spiral flow to mitigate wax deposition. The
spiral flow technique, raise interest in the possibility of
Identification of Wax Deposition Problem
increasing the shear rate to prevent wax deposition by mixing Wax deposition is, a public problem, a critical operational
the wax crystals with the crude oil and prevent it to deposit on challenge and one of the main flow assurance problems in the
the pipe wall. Moreover, undertake a systematic study of oil industry around the world including the offshore and
inhibition of wax deposition using the effects of combination onshore oil fields. Wax deposition precipitates and deposit on
spiral flow with a chemical inhibitor to increase the effect of the cold pipeline wall when the inner wall temperature falls
the mitigation process. below the wax appearance temperature and occurs when
It can be concluded that, a fundamental understanding of paraffin components in crude oil (alkanes with carbon numbers
wax deposition phenomena is highly required in order to greater than 20) [1].

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International Journal of Petrochemistry and Research

The formation of wax in the pipe during the fluid production time. If this technique were to be used based on inaccurate
from the bottom hole of the well to the surface can restrict the information on the location of wax deposit and its wax
flow of crude oil, creating pressure abnormalities and causing an fraction, there could be unwanted local high temperature in
artificial blockage, as shown in Figure 2, leading to the reduction the pipeline due to the failure of re-dissolving wax deposit.
or even cessation of production [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Wax Successful wax deposition management will become
deposition also leads to formation damage near the wellbore, more important in the future because new explorations and
reduction in permeability, changes in the reservoir fluid productions are being made farther offshore. The wax
composition and fluid rheology due to phase separation as wax deposition management cost to the petroleum production
solid precipitates [15]. industry is enormous and will increase both in terms of capital
Wax precipitation is impacted by several factors, such as: costs (e.g. preventive methods) and operating costs (e.g.
crude oil composition [16], flow rate, temperature gradient [17], corrective methods) [2].
pipe wall temperature (inlet coolant temperature), crude oil Recently, three technologies are used around the world
temperature, shear stress, production time and oil viscosity [18]. to mitigate wax deposition in the offshore and onshore oil,
namely, pigging, thermal mitigation and wax inhibitors
(chemical inhibitors. Most of the oil companies are using the
wax inhibitors, as a main mitigation method to reduce wax,
combined with pigging or thermal insulation.

Case Studies of Wax Deposition

In India offshore field to the west of India, the oil is
transported through a 30-inch, 203-km pipeline from the
offshore platform to a terminal on land. This crude oil has high
wax content and a 30°C pour point. Given that the average
seabed temperature is 22°C, pour point depressant (PPD) is
injected. Specifically, 300 ppm/350 ppm of PPD is injected to
achieve a pour point of 21°C/18°C and therefore maintain the
Figure 2. Wax deposition plug in the wellbore on platform C in the flow of the oil. The subsea pipelines are regularly pigged. The
North Sea [19]. cost of PPD injection alone is US$15 million/year. Whereas the
Wax deposition can be reduced or prevented by a chemical, use of PPD has maintained the oil flow, an on-going increase in
mechanical, or thermal remediation method or by a combination the pipeline pressure has been observed over time. This indicates
of some of them [20]. If the wax mitigation methods not working the presence of wax deposits in the subsea pipeline. According
well (e.g. insulation of pipeline, injection of wax inhibitor, or to a technical survey, approximately 20,000 mᵌ of wax has already
combination of both), a gel layer of wax will grows rapidly in been deposited in the pipeline (which has a volume of 90,226
thickness and obstructs the flow of oil because of flow restriction mᵌ). A combination of PPD and dispersant was being considered
[1] [2]. Those elimination methods become increasingly to mitigate the wax deposition and therefore reduce the
significant as the oil industry operations expanded in deepwater frequency of pigging [24].
to greater depths and distances in cold environments, which Another case study, the Gannet oil field is located
poses a great challenge to the industry [21a, 21b][15]; [22][23][8]. approximately 180 km east of Aberdeen in United Kingdom in a
Pigging is one of the most typically corrective methods depth of about 90 m. The Gannet field is located 16 km northeast
used in the oilfields. In pigging, a pig passes through the of the Gannet Alpha platform. Risers 31 and 32 carry oil from
pipeline to scrape off the wax deposit (pig is a solid material Gannet. The wax appearance temperature of this oil is
with the diameter less than the inner diameter of the pipe). approximately 35.5°C. Wax deposition in the subsea pipeline of
Conversely, the pigging method cannot professionally be Gannet was estimated to be around 21 mᵌ of wax had built up
used without a proper wax deposition prediction. For example, over a length of 8 km. An appropriate solvent was selected and
pigs at times get stuck inside the pipeline in the presence of injected at a rate of 0.6 mᵌ/min. After solvent injection, an
thick hard deposits making the situation worse, which additional 480 mᵌ/day of oil could be recovered. Also, the pigging
occurred in a Gulf of Mexico pipeline. Production must be method was used frequency with the inhibitors to remove wax
stopped in worst cases in order to replace the plugged portion deposition in Gannet oil field [25] [24].
of the line, which is estimated to cost approximately The Power Play oil field is located in 706 m of water in
$40,000,000 per incident [8]. Garden Banks block 28, Gulf of Mexico, and began production
Alternative remediation method is to use a fused chemical in 2008. It is a subsea tieback to a host facility with a subsea
reaction with controlled heat emission to mitigate wax flow loop to enable oil circulation and pigging. The subsea
deposition. However, in order to successfully use this architecture consists of two 10 km 4.5 × 7″ (pipe in pipe) PIP
technique, it is critical to know the thickness profile and the pipeline pigging loop systems with insulated steel catenary
wax fraction of the deposit as a function of axial location and risers. The wax appearance temperature of the oil is 41.1°C,

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International Journal of Petrochemistry and Research

and the pour point ranges between -5°C and 19°C. Given that A universal solution would be a both convenient and cost
the WAT is high, wax deposition is possible. To mitigate this effective response to the current demand. Presently, most of
risk, a PIP system was applied to minimize heat loss from the the companies have their personalised technique to tackle
oil. As observed in the northern and southern subsea pipelines the wax deposition. This is not very practical as oil viscosity
during oil production, a simultaneous increase in the flowing changes depending on the geology and geographical
bottomhole pressure and a drop in the oil production rate location. If spiral flow technique is adopted universally in the
pointed to the possibility of partial plugging as a result of wax correct way, it will help to reduce the amount of investment as
deposition in the pipeline. To mitigate this plugging, xylene well as man power to achieve better results.
solvent was injected into the pipelines at a rate of between Researchers have used various different types of chemical
0.04 and 0.32 mᵌ/min. This, combined with an increase in the inhibitors, such as polyethylene, ethylene/vinyl acetate
pressure, was not able to remediate the wax deposition. copolymers, copolymer esters [24][32][31], ester/vinyl acetate
Rather, the operation opted to switch the production zone copolymers, olefin/ester copolymers, polymethacrylates [33]
from the lower zone to the higher zone to increase the flow [34][35][36], alkyl phenol resins, xylene and toluene [24][37]
rate. This increased the flow temperature to above the WAT [38], studying their effects on wax appearance temperature,
and successfully mitigated wax deposition [26]. wax content, pour point, and crude oil viscosity using
On another hand, Russian oil production is almost analytical methods, to evaluate the suitable inhibitor for the
exclusively onshore and suffering from the problem of wax waxy crude oil that provides the desired results in preventing
deposition such as padovskoe oil field, Mukhanovskoe oilfield, wax deposition.
Petrukhnovskoe oil field and Urmanskoe oil field. Technological A small number of researchers have used an experimental
methods such as pigging and thermal insulation have been flow loop to study and determine dynamically the efficiency
used combined with the chemical inhibitors to reach the of wax inhibitors on wax deposition inside the pipe, such as
highest efficiency to control the wax deposition in the some of them are [29][30], [39].
pipelines. The chemical inhibitors that have been used to
The difference between the analytical methods and the
reduce wax deposition are includes surfactant (nanylphenol,
experimental flow loop systems is the experimental conditions
synthanol), aromatic solvents (benzene, xylene, toluene), and
used in the flow loop deposition test affected the performance
aliphatic alcohol (butano, pentanol, hexanol) [27].
of paraffin inhibitors, indicating that temperature gradients
The wax deposition problem can occur even in the high (i.e., oil temperature and inlet coolant temperature) must be
temperature areas. For example, Kirkuk – Ceyhan crude oil optimized to achieve the highest reduction in wax deposition.
pipeline between Iraq and Turkey is an example for the While, the experimental conditions in the analytical methods
onshore pipelines that have wax deposition in winter season can be controlled, such as pressure, temperature, and shear
of the year. The average lowest temperature is about 2°C in rate, providing accurate results in the analytical of wax
winter between north of Iraq and Turkey, therefore, it’s inhibition [40].
enough to form and deposit wax inside the pipeline. Kirkuk –
29] investigated the effect of chemical inhibitors such as
Ceyhan crude oil pipeline is 40-inch in diameter and 1049 km
poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) and poly(maleic anhydride-
long, of which 986-km pass through Turkish territory, and it
alt-1-octadecene) (MA) on wax deposition, using cold finger
had a capacity of 700,000 b/d. It was noticed that the wax
apparatus. The wax inhibition percentage of their study was
mole fraction starts to rise with a value of 0.193 around 300
23.1% using EVA and 7.5% using MA at a coolant temperature of
km from inlet and at the end of the pipeline reaches 0.2225.
25°C. Adeyanju and Oyekunle (2014) [30] investigated the effect
The pigging method and the aromatic solvents used to
of groups of acrylate ester copolymers of varying alkyl side
mitigate wax deposition in the pipeline [28].
chains as wax inhibitors during the flow of crude oil in the flow
loop. Wax inhibition percentages of 25-55% were obtained at
Discussion high coolant temperatures above 20°C at a concentration of
Many oil companies prefer chemical additives in analysing 5000ppm of the inhibitor. Hoffmann and Amundsen (2013) [39]
the economics of waxy crude oil production in cold found that about 60%-90% of wax thickness was reduced by
environments, considering this the best solution to reduce applying different concentrations (125, 250 and 500ppm) of the
wax deposition in pipelines due to chemical additives does commercial inhibitor, and using silicon as an insulation material
not need to stop production for cleaning the pipe but it during experimental work investigation.
considers as an online mitigation method [8]. Some In the previous studies, even though many different types
researchers are stating that there is currently no universal of chemical inhibitors have been used at different
type of inhibitor can be used for all kinds of crude oil due to concentration, at different inlet coolant temperatures, there is
the varying properties of crude oils [29][24][30][31]. This is an still wax deposit on the pipe wall due to the researchers
investigation to understand the wax deposition problem, missed investigate the effect of combining the chemical
because of the universal inhibitor may solve the wax inhibitors on wax deposition.
deposition problem and create more problems such as A small number of researches mentioned using the spiral
(corrosion) due to varying properties of crude oils and the flow and studied its effects in different areas [41] [42][43][44][45]
different climate. [46][47], however, Theyab and Diaz (2016a, 2016b, 2016c) [5][6]
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International Journal of Petrochemistry and Research

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ISSN: 2638-1974